Of Magic and Mages
by Ryuus2
Summary: The difference between Mahora and Hogwarts? Hogwarts is co-ed and everyone knows magic. Oh, and it snows. New school, new students, new problems. Negi's got his work cut out for him.
1. Chapter 1

Read AN quickly and with exaggeration to get full effect.

This will be AU. Being in the crossovers section and on this site ensures that. I own neither boy wizard extraordinaire, nor the worlds in which they live. Their proper owners are not me, and therefore they are not my property. They are not mine, and as such I do not own them. They are the property of a rich man and a rich woman who are not myself. The people who created them and profit from their existence are not me, since I profit in no way from writing about them. Nor am I rich. Now I will stop talking like Mojo Jojo so you can get on with reading my story.

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Prologue: Where? How? What?

The girls of the Ala Alba, plus a dozen odd others, are staring at the Welsh gate to Mundus Magicus, wondering what's taking so long. Negi was right behind them, having a final word with Jack Rakan and throwing out a few final farewells. That was fifteen minutes ago, and he hasn't come through yet.

"Dammit! What's taking that brat so long!" Asuna Kagurazaka, preferred over her proper name of Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia since it was less of a mouthful and easier to remember, last Princess of Ostia, Cousin/aunt/'who knows?' of Negi Springfield, shouts in anger; though to the well trained ears of her classmates and allies the undertone of worry for their wayward teacher and team leader is strikingly apparent.

"Don't worry Ane-san," Chamo says from Asuna's left shoulder, lighting one of his cigarettes. "Aniki can take care of himself, no problem."

"He's right Asuna, there's no need to worry," Konoka Konoe, contender for Moe-ist girl ever, says, putting her hand on Asuna's shoulder to try and calm her temperamental roommate and friend.

Yue Ayase, the Genius-when-she-wants-to-be-one, wierd-drink-girl, etc., picks this moment to pipe in. "Don't forget, the link to the magical world is unstable. There could be a lag for someone going through even a few seconds after the last of us." She takes a sip from her 'Pickled Prunes & Jalapeños' juice box. "Listen to the others, it shouldn't be much longer."

"I believe that's my cue." The girls all perk up at this, the voice of their kid teacher; though more than a few eyebrows quirk at the voice itself and the direction it came from. There was something off about the tone, it was deeper than it should have been, and it was coming from behind them, when the gateway into the magical world was directly in front of them. Upon turning around to greet/berate/fondle inappropriately their Sensei, they find the reason for the variance in his voice.

Negi Springfield, son of the Thousand Master Nagi Springfield, prince of Ostia, youngest English teacher in Japan, heartthrob to 99.999% of all females who knew him aged 13+ on two worlds, defeater of the nigh-invincible Fate Averuncus and Cosmo Entelekheia, apprentice to the infamous Dark Evangel, grown man…has gotten taller. He's now the same height as most of the 3-A class, at Asuna's eye level. He's wearing a new green tweed suit under a clean and unamaged mage's cloak. Oh, and his ponytail is sticking out an extra foot too.

The assembled girls, and Kotaro, Chamo and Takamichi, are rendered mute, if otherwise predisposed, by Negi's changed appearance, for widely different reasons. Asuna finally manages to jump through her shock to stutter out, "N-n-Ne-Negi? Wh-wha- how did you get behind us? And what's with the sudden growth spurt?"

Negi coughs into his hand nervously, then scratches the back of his neck with a weak chuckle. "Well, that's a funny story actually," he says, the slight deepening of his voice that accompanies the improbable height sending not unpleasant shivers down the spines of many of the girls present to accompany the reddening of their faces, and sends more then one of their minds down a highly immoral corridor. "You see, with all the time I spent training in the Master's resort, and all the backtracking I did during the festival, and the extra time spent in the magical world, I ended up living two years in the span of one."

Somehow having managed to pull herself out of the increasing spirals of confusion and lust that have caught her classmates, puzzling it out with her finger placed cutely on her lip (causing the desired affect of redirecting a majority of Setsuna Sakurazaki's attention from Negi to her), Konoka asks, "So…since you started teaching at age nine, and you taught us for a year, which became two years because of everything else… Then you're eleven now?"

"Erm, not quite. Yue-san was right about the time dilation. You all came back through the gate today, a few days before the end of summer vacation. The few seconds I delayed in the magical world allowed the gate to reset itself. When I followed you, though I was only a few seconds behind, I came out here a year ago. So I'm actually twelve now."

The girls are all frozen in shock and contemplation again, trying to work out the bombshell that their teacher/love interest/leader/money pit/shotacon fantasy just dropped on them. This is all emphasized by the mostly unanimous yelling of _**"WHAT?"**_ and _**"A YEAR!"**_

It is Chachamaru Karakuri, the most level headed of the Negi-crazy girls there, who asks the very relevant question on all their minds. "Negi-Sensei, what have you been doing for the past year then?"

"Oh? Well, to prevent confusion, the Magus sent me on another teaching assignment," he says.

Asuna finally manages to come out of her shock enough to ask, "And that was…?"

Negi gives everyone his most disarming smile. "I taught Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

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Tell me what you think. I'd like some serious critiques of my work so I can find areas I need to improve.

For those of you interested, read my other story "The Eagle Flies Once More," a Naruto/Assassins Creed crossover. Please Review it! I still need ideas for the next arc!


	2. Chapter 2

If you were expecting repetitive disclaimers, then sorry, not happening. I'm going to -eventually- put a universal disclaimer in my profile, but in the mean time, I'll just stick this here until I decide to do something else later.

I do not own either series used in this story. I am not the first to generate this crossover, though I am the first to do it this particular way. I only own my original ideas, and those familiar with the independent series will be able to pull them out. If you have a problem with my story, feel free to tell me. I will address any issues with my story in my AN. I hold full rights to display all flamers as imbeciles and publicly humiliate them in my AN. If you have a problem with that, tough nuts.

That's all I have to say. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: How it all started

The members of the Ala Alba, and their dozen odd companions who would be returning to Earth, is saying goodbye to their new friends in the magical world and the more impatient ones have started on through the portal back to Wales.

Jack Rakan, professional breaker of all known and unknown laws of nature and magic, pulls Negi out of the line and off to the side for a quick word. When Asuna realizes that almost everyone but Negi has gone through the gate, she pans around looking for him. She spots him with Jack off to the side and shouts "get a move on Baka-Negi! You'll miss the stable window if you don't hurry up!"

"I'll just be a moment! I'll be right behind you!" Asuna sighs and heads through at the end of the line with Nodoka Miyazaki, contender number one in the race for Negi's heart, both taking a not-so-subtle look over their shoulders at Negi.

Jack starts talking once they're alone. "Look kid, I don't have any recent Intel on Nagi, at least nothing more recent than what Al could tell you. As far's I know, you've had the most recent contact with that pesky bastard. I do know where his house was though-"

"Kyoto, I know." Negi says. "Konoe-san showed me when I visited during a class trip a few months ago."

"Oh, Eishun did? Well, crap." Jack takes up a chin rubbing thinking pose. "Uh…what about his base? You know about that?"

"Base?"

"Yeah. The pest had a secret base he'd run off to every now and then to store some item or other he'd acquired. Anything he felt was too dangerous or inconvenient to carry around or keep at his place or with one of us, he spirited away to that place."

Negi's eyes get sparkly with boyish wonder, the kind only reserved for clubhouses and secret bases. "My father had a secret base? Wow! Where is it? Do you know where it is?" He asks excitedly.

"No one knows; he never took anyone with him." The ruff and tumble old perverted jackass of a muscleman actually cringes at the raw disappointment that declaration produces in Negi. "I can tell you that it's probably somewhere in Europe. When we were south of the Equator he'd head North, when we were in the Western Hemisphere, he'd jump the puddle to the Eastern Hemisphere, when we were at the north pole he'd head south, when we were in Asia he'd go to Europe, and when we were in Europe he'd just pop off on the spot."

Negi sighs, but the disappointment passes written over by his ever present determination. "Thank you Rakan-san. Now that I have another lead, I can see if I can find any clues in my father's house, and if anyone else knows anything about it."

Jack smirks. "It's fine kid, glad I could help. Now get going or you'll miss your window."

"Thanks again. Goodbye!" Negi shouts behind him as he heads through the portal, waving a final goodbye to all of his new friends and allies.

Negi comes out of the portal into a circle of stones in a barren field. "Huh?" He quickly looks around the portal site then starts back towards the village, puzzling over the distinct lack of jabbering schoolgirls trying to molest him on the way. "Where is everyone?" He continues his confused musing all the way out of the portal area, and only stops when he's interrupted by the Magus stumbling on him.

"Negi-kun? What are you doing here?" the Merdiana Magic Academy's resident twinkly-eyed-old-fart asks him. "Shouldn't you be with Anya and Nekane at the airport?"

Negi blinks at his old headmaster in confusion. "At the…?" If you look closely, you can see the moment Inner Negi pushes the Oh Shit button. "Oh no. Um…Sir? I think we have a problem."

Later, Negi and the Magus, who aside from being a twinkly-eyed-old-fart we know _nothing_ about, including his name, are sitting in the Magus' office having afternoon tea. "So you are from almost one year into the future, where you were for some reason in the Magical World, and due to a malfunction in the portal you are a year early on your return." Negi nods at the Magus' summary of his vague, for safety purposes, tale. "Well, now that is a problem. Since you cannot be sent forward one year, and you can't stay around here or interfere with yourself at Mahora for fear of damaging the timeline, I'll have to send you somewhere out of the way until it's time for you to return and rejoin your allies." The boy slumps just a bit at the declaration. "And it just so happens I know someone who is in need of a magical teacher. Seeing as you showed, or _will_ show, great success in the assignment I gave you, this should suit you well."

"Really Sir?" the boy mage asks with a smidge of the hope he'd just lost.

"Yes. Have you ever heard of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"Yes! Of course! It's one of the premier private magical schools in the world! It was founded by four of the greatest witches and wizards to ever walk the earth. It's said that its library is the largest collection of purely magical knowledge on Earth. Its wards are supposed to be so powerful that they mask the entire magical forest around it from normal people and thus it has become the largest magical creature preserve in the world. And-"

The Magus holds up a hand to stop the boy's exuberant explication. He knew he'd get a positive reaction, but this was a bit much. "That is quite enough, Negi. It is safe to say that you've heard of it. Now, the point I was trying to raise is that Hogwarts has been having a bit of trouble maintaining a teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and as I recall, you yourself received quite high marks in that class."

"Ah…yes, I am rather skilled in that department, aren't I?"

"Hm. Now, the point of your training assignment was to place you in a social environment where you could grow as a person, and to place you in a community where you had many options and resources to further your training as a mage. Considering how much you've improved in the last year, for you, Hogwarts should prove a rather relaxing change of pace. There might be a problem with your age though-"

"I don't think there will be." A deeper voice than Negi's cuts him off. The Magus nearly has a heart attack looking at what appears to be a young Nagi in the seat just filled by Negi.

"NAGI!"

"No. Still Negi."

"B—bb-bb-b-b-but How!"

Negi gives his old headmaster a strained smile. "Let's just say that I've had- err, I'll _have_ an interesting year. I've found an older form is a rather useful disguise at times."

"My, oh my. Dear boy you nearly gave me a heart attack. But this should solve the age problem. But I must warn you, the atmosphere of wizarding Europe has been tumultuous of late."

"What happened that could stir up the wizards of the continent?"

"You heard last summer how Death Eaters raided the Quidditch World Cup after Ireland's victory?"

"Yes. I could hardly believe it. I won free takeout from Anya because Krum caught the snitch, even though Bulgaria lost."

"Well…I'm sorry, but could you please revert to your proper age Negi?"

"Eh?"

"It's just…that face …"

"Oh, um, right." Negi returns to his normal state with a flash.

"Hooh." "_Much better. If the time travel wasn't confusing enough, that face was like staring at a ghost. He really does look too much like his father."_ "Now, where was I? Oh, yes, last year. Well, the events of the cup caused quite a stir with most, especially since the Dark Mark was fired into the sky. Fortunately nobody was seriously injured and it all eventually blew over. But it all came up to surface again a month or so ago when Harry Potter won the Triwizard Tournament and declared the Dark Lord Voldemort's revival, and named him the murderer of his schoolmate and fellow competitor."

"I remember hearing some older students talking about that, and reading an article with Anya and Nekane-nechan. I didn't pay it much attention because of my studies for graduation."

"Yes. While you were studying, you missed the smear campaign the Ministry of Magic has been throwing against Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. It is surreptitious, but it appears the Ministry's official stance is that Potter's lost it and Dumbledore's senile, and that there is no way that Voldemort could possibly be back, of course."

"That…that's horrible."

"It gets worse. A contact of mine just sent me word that Mr. Potter stood trial for using the Patronus charm in front of his mundane cousin to defend them both from Dementors."

"What? But that makes no sense! I thought there were provisions in the wizarding Codes for emergency use of magic, especially in self defense and in the presence of family."

"Minister Fudge seems to have it out for Potter. Albus Dumbledore was able to win the trial in Potters favor, but it was quick work."

"That is incredible." Negi takes a minute to finish his tea and wrap his head around the current situation. He sets his glass down and nods determinedly. "Well I've always wanted to visit Hogwarts, and I can't resist the chance to take a crack at their library. I'll do it. I'll take the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts."

The Magus grins. "I'm glad to hear it. I'll make the arrangements."

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: And the two become as one

Negi received the letter a few days later.

_Dear Mr. Springfield,_

_Thank you for your correspondence. Due to the scarcity of applicants, your interview can be conducted post-haste. This letter is a portkey and will transport you to the front steps of the castle, where you will meet a guide who will escort you to my office. The portkey is timed for exactly 1:33 in the afternoon, standard time, July the third. Please have all materials you feel you might need for the interview on hand._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchaft and Wizardry_

Negi checks over his green tweed suit, new beige robe, staff, and 16-ish body one last time before checking his watch. "_5…4…3…2…1…"_ The pulling upon his navel is his only warning of the activation of the portkey, and he barely manages to bend his knees the few inches he knows he'll need to brace himself for the conclusion of the trip.

He arrives outside the front doors of Hogwarts almost instantly, and uses his bent legs to absorb the shock of landing common with a portkey. "I really don't see why people don't try and get these things to run smoother. Whew, the air here is as thick with magic as the magical world." He turns around and takes his first look at the castle and is suitably awed, childish joy painted on his face. He keeps the stupid look as he spins around to take in the entirety of the school grounds.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Negi turns back to the stairs in surprise and tenses for a fight, only to find the originator of the words to be standing at relatively his height…on the sixth stair up. The man is a wrinkled, kindly dwarf of a man in azure robes. "Well? What do you think? This is your first time visiting Hogwarts if I'm to understand things Mr. Springfield."

"Ah…ha-ha," Negi chuckles, scratching his neck below his ponytail. "Sorry about that. Yes it is my first time here," a wide, sunny smile breaks out over his face, "It's just as magnificent as I'd envisioned." He steps forward to the bottom step to get a better look at the exceptionally diminutive wizard. _"I didn't feel him coming at all. I'd better be more alert; if Master ever finds out I let someone sneak up on me she'd restart our training from the basics!"_ "I'm Negi Springfield, here to interview for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post."

"Fillius Flitwick, Charms Professor and head of Ravenclaw House. A pleasure to meet you Mr. Springfield. Now we'd better hurry! The Headmaster has an appointment with the Minister's Undersecretary shortly that he'd rather avoid." The two start up the steps, their heads staying on the same level until they reach the main landing.

"Is it okay for him to do that?"

"If you knew the woman, you wouldn't be asking that question." Negi could've sworn he heard the diminutive professor mutter 'toad bitch' after that, but he was sure it was his imagination.

Negi follows Professor Flitwick up and down hallways and staircases, still in a state of awe at the grandness of the castle, and doesn't stop until his guide does in front of a particularly ugly gargoyle statue. "Peppermint Sherbet." Upon declaring the odd flavor of sweet, the author not being a fan of either mint or sherbet flavored ice cream, the gargoyle steps aside to reveal a revolving staircase leading up through its alcove. "This way please, Mr. Springfield."

They encounter a much taller witch in scarlet robes and pointed hat at the top of the escalator-like stairs, and if Negi didn't know any better, he'd have sworn he heard her mutter 'toad bitch' as she closed the door behind her with a snap.

"Hello Minerva. This is Mr. Negi Springfield, here to interview for the Defense position," Flitwick says by way of introduction. The witch, Minerva, gets the oh-so-dangerous 'this'll show the bitch' look on her face, the look only useable by angry girls/women and very effeminate men, and that all present had seen on their own hormonally driven female students. She composes herself and the look is gone as quickly as it came.

She says, "Welcome to Hogwarts Mr. Springfield. The Headmaster will be glad to hear you've arrived." She turns on her heel before Negi can return the greeting and opens the doors. Loudly.

The inside of the headmaster's office looks like something out of a fantasy book. There are fantastic gizmo's whirling and chiming scattered all about. The room is brightly lit and stuffed with plush, grand furniture. There is a beautiful crimson bird perched behind the desk glaring at the fireplace. The only other occupant of the room is a wizened, spindly old man in periwinkle and mauve robes with a matching hat and wire frame glasses perched on his nose. He has the patient look of someone who wants to glare, but can't for the sake of proper social conduct. He looks up quickly and hopefully from his hunched position in front of the fireplace at the trio standing in the doorway. When he stands, Negi is able to catch a glimpse of a face in the fire he was talking to.

"Albus, Mr. Springfield has arrived," The red clad witch says primly, and slightly louder than is truly necessary, probably to make sure the face in the fire heard her clearly.

"Ah, it appears my two o'clock is right on time. So sorry Madam Undersecretary, but it appears we will have to cut our conversation short and reschedule our meeting for the previously appointed time," the man says as he wipes the face out of the fire. Negi thought he heard the Headmaster -who else could he be?- utter a mumbled 'toad bitch' but it was surely his imagination acting up again.

"Sorry for the interruption-" Negi begins, only to be waved off by the headmaster with a forgiving air and twinkly-eyed smile.

"Oh think nothing of it dear boy. Delores was just trying to move up her appointment with me. The Ministry is pressuring me to find an adequate Defense teacher this year after the debacle last term, and Delores seems to be lobbying for the position. Hopefully we won't have to take her from her duties at the Ministry. Now, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, etc, etc. Welcome to Hogwarts Mr. Springfield."

The chipper introduction threw Negi for a moment, but only a moment. "It is truly an honor to be here Sir. None of the books I've read do Hogwarts justice. To see it in person is…it's just overwhelmingly incredible."

"Ah yes, yes, that it is. Even after all my years and travels, I have never found a place quite so enrapturing as Hogwarts." Dumbledore settles into a moment's quiet recollection, only to be brought out by a single, short, quiet note from the bird at his rear left. "Ah right you are Fawkes! It's time we get down to your interview Mr. Springfield." The old man spends a moment shuffling papers in a way designed to seem important when it really isn't, finally settling on a letter in what Negi recognizes as the Magus' handwriting. "Now let's see…you come well appointed by the Magus of Merdiana Magic School. Graduated a seven year term in five, and at the top of your class too. Very determined, well versed in the combative arts, incredibly versatile…and it says here you're quite the ladies man!" Dumbledore turns his madly twinkling eyes from the letter up to the young man before him, who has been reduced to blushing and spluttering at the last declaration.

In an obvious attempt to help the young man save face, Flitwick decides to break the current train of conversation. "Merdiana? You're a mage then, Mr. Springfield?"

Negi's relief at the change in topic is readily apparent. "Yes Professor Flitwick, I am a mage. And call me Negi, please. Being called Mr. so much is making me feel old. Ha ha ha!"

The gnomish wizard beams at him like he does the twins when they consult him on a particularly interesting notion for their various 'projects.' "Fillius, please. We're all friends here."

Negi's incredibly charming boyish smile makes its return. "Fillius then. Oh, and I didn't catch your name Ma'am?" Negi switches his attention to Minerva, who's maintained the same smug smile since walking through the door.

"Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration, Head of Gryffindor House, and Deputy Headmistress," she says in her, as usual, prim tone.

"A pleasure to meet you Professor McGonagall." Impossibly, Negi ups the charm.

Minerva McGonagall, the most strict bitch in the whole of Hogwarts …blushes.

"Minerva will be just fine. Ahem, Now if you will excuse me, I have some work to do. Good day Albus, Fillius, …Negi." She leaves in a flutter of robes and doesn't look back.

Albus and Fillius share a wide eyed look at Negi, then lock eyes and manage to simultaneously convey the exact same question and answer to one another: _"Did Minni just blush?" "I…think she _did_."_ The two break off their momentary staring contest after a second, and return their attentions to the boy –no, the young _man_ before them.

"Well, ahem, Negi. What is the most dangerous creature and/or person you've ever faced? And how did you deal with the situation?" Dumbledore finally asks to move the interview along while secretly plotting how to use the recent events to tease his deputy headmistress later on. After all, Minerva McGonagall did _not_ blush for just anyone. He hadn't even seen her so much as flush since…wait, no. She'd been flushing, in anger, quite a bit these past few years over the events surrounding Harry Potter. Ever since that first night fourteen years ago she'd been very cross with him in relation to how he plotted the boys' life. Maybe it was the cat in her, and she'd imprinted on the boy on the doorstep of number 4 Privet Drive? _"Hmm…oh, dash it all! I don't have time for this! I can contemplate on Minerva later, _after_ blocking Fudge and the toad bitch's attempts at infiltrating my school."_

Negi picks this moment, after the headmaster's thoughts segued down the less crack-y of the two paths the author had to decide on, to answer the question of his experience. In truth, he'd planned for this question much in advance. After all, he'd faced everything from robots to vampires to dragons to Martians in the past year, or, he would anyways. Gah! Time travel was so complicated. Since he couldn't really use any of his experience truthfully in his explanation of his abilities, he developed the following story. "Well…on a trip to Japan I spent a short time training with a mage I met, a miss Evangeline A. K. McDowell..."

"_That name sounds familiar,"_ Dumbledore muses to himself._ "Where have I heard it before I wonder?"_

"…also known as the Dark Evangel," Negi finishes quietly.

There is a pause. A very long pause. It is obvious both men are very narrowly managing to process that Negi survived a meeting, let alone _trained_ _with_ the infamous Dark Evangel, the most powerful dark witch since Morgan Le Fay and most dangerous vampire since Dracula. Out of the corner of his eye, Dumbledore could see that Fawkes' jaw had hit the floor in surprise as well. Negi is sheepishly smiling and sweating this whole time at their obvious discomfort. He seeks out Dumbledore's eyes to get a measure of his thoughts, and upon finding the crystal blues of the ancient headmaster experiences a moment of vertigo. The moment passes with the blinking of Dumbledore's eyes and Negi shakes it off.

"_Holy crap he's telling the truth! To survive that…he truly is _that_ mans son,"_ Dumbledore thinks as he grows a genuine smile finally and says aloud, "I do believe that is qualifying enough. You're hired Professor Springfield."

"Eh?" Negi asks intelligently.

"Classes start on the 1st of September. You have until then to prepare your class schedule. If you need any help, I'm sure your fellow professors would be happy to assist you."

"Th-Thank you Headmaster. But I'm a bit worried I won't have time to get used to the school _and_ develop a course plan. To be honest, I don't even think I could find my way back to the entrance hall without a guide. And with only a few weeks and no prior experience with the Hogwarts curriculum-"

"Don't worry Professor; I believe I know just the man for the job," he says, his eyes going into twinkle overload.

"Oh? Who?"

"One of your future students. He's one of the top 5 most knowledgeable of the castle's layout among the current classes, and easily one of the most experienced combatants. A fifth year; Mr. Harry Potter."

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OMAKE

The other track Albus's thoughts could have taken.

"Well, ahem, Negi. What's the most dangerous creature and/or person you've ever faced? And how did you deal with the situation?" Dumbledore finally asks to move the interview along while secretly plotting how to use the recent events to tease his deputy headmistress later on. After all, Minerva McGonagall did _not_ blush for just anyone. Though he could see the appeal. The boy's smile was so full and innocent, charged with the power of youth. He moved with a grace only seen in people who had to move gracefully for a living, and he was a perfectly charming gentleman. And that cute little scar on his cheek…_"No. No! Bad Albus! No thinking about boyish charms and cute scars! You have too much to do this year to be distracted by your hormones. It's already bad enough you need to avoid Harry and his cute scar and dreamy eyes for most of the year so you can work on your plans without anything leaking to Tom. Remember the Greater Good! It'll all be worth it soon enough. And then you can fantasize about boyish smiles and cute scars all you want."_

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Yeeaah. I don't know what came over me when I wrote that OMAKE either.

I hope you enjoyed, Please Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Introducing the other protagonist

Harry Potter is reviewing the past few months of his life, from the last round of the Triwizard Tournament to the death of Cedric, the revival of Voldemort and his own escape, the unveiling of Crouch Jr. as the fake Moody, and then up to his saving of Dudley not long ago, meeting the Order, the joke of a trial, and Dumbledore's evasion of him. He was wondering how it all lead up to his current situation. Namely: staying alive.

Now, this isn't a situation he was unused to. After all, he's Harry Potter, the-bleeping-Boy-Who-Lived; the past four years of his life were devoted to 'staying alive,' and that he was here proved he was good at it. His current situation was a little odder than normal though, even for him.

He and his Godfather, escaped convict Sirius Black, and his former Defense professor, the werewolf Remus Lupin, were trying to clean one of the annex hallways of number 12 Grimauld Place -the ancestral home of Sirius' family, and current base of the Order of the Phoenix- of the cursed items his relatives had left lying around since he abandoned the family years ago. In the annex they stumbled upon a suit of black (ha ha!) armor guarding a closet door. The suit seemed to be immune to magical damage, disarming and stunning spells fizzing out on impact and stronger blasting spells and hexes being deflected off entirely. What's more, it was wielding a broadsword. And the sword was on fire.

Just another day in the life of The Boy Who Lived.

"Dammit Sirius! I hate your family!" Harry yells to his Godfather as he rolls under the armors sword swing and comes out smelling singed hair.

"Welcome to the club!" Sirius shouts as he pelts the armor with a rainbow of hexes, and barely dodges one that rebounded in his face.

"Well, look on the bright side," Remus calls from his own corner, where he is trying his own rainbow of spells on the armor, though with a more relaxed air and careful hand than Sirius, thus avoiding the rebounds his best friend keeps having to dodge. "It couldn't get much worse."

"Moony you idiot!" Sirius yells to the werewolf as he turns into a dog to dodge the attacks of the armor and get some distance. He pops back into a man directly opposite Lupin with the armor between them and resumes his magical assault. "You never say that! Especially when Harry's involved!"

Harry starts adding his own, less damaging, spells, hexes, and curses to the older Marauders lightshow. "He's right! That phrase is the signal for Voldemort to reveal he's possessing Quirrel! For the ghost of the Prefect to reveal he's Voldemort! For the moon to come out and the rat to escape! And for your defense professor to reveal he's a Death Eater!" Throughout Harry's dramatic listing of yearly kicks in the balls, his spells were slowly growing in intensity and destructive force. He pours all of that anger and hatred at those memories down his wand and out at the armor with a bellowed, "REDUCTO!"

His blasting curse* comes out as a bright blue ball of energy and hits the suit of armor so hard that, even though it rolls off its shoulder into the ceiling and creates a hole into the next floor, it makes the armor stumble forward a few feet into the wall.

The two older wizards are just as surprised as Harry at the power he was able to put behind that spell. Harry himself stumbles back out of the annex into the main hallway to lean up against the wall facing into the annex to catch his breath. That spell chain took a lot out of him.

"That boy is just full of surprises," Remus murmurs to Sirius.

"That's my Godson for you," Sirius gloats to his boyhood partner in crime. "Now let's us keep this hunk of junk busy while Harry recovers. Can't have him showing us up, now can we?"

"Right. You'd never let us live it down." The two start dishing out some really punishing spells on the armor, and it has to start actively swatting them away after a few make it flinch.

Harry finally catches his breath as with a shouted "Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall runs up to him from down the hallway. She reaches his side and he can hear loud footsteps coming from out of sight behind her. "What was that explosion a moment ago?"

"Sorry Professor," Harry huffs out. "That was me. Sirius, Remus and I are fighting a magic-proof suit of black (ha ha!) armor. I sent an overpowered Reducto at its back, and it slid off into the ceiling. Unfortunately that's the only thing to have affected the thing so far, and it barely moved it!"

She nods at his words. She looks at the battle to see how the younger-than-her men are faring, and sees the same magic barrier that's been causing them problems in action. "I see. Let us see how this armor reacts to something a bit more solid." With a flick of her wand McGonagall sends a length of heavy chain to wrap up the armor, but the flaming sword intervenes and renders the chain useless in a few offhand slashes.

"Yeah. We tried that too." Harry finally straightens up and starts breathing evenly. He turns down the hallway and aims his wand at a curio cabinet partway down it. "Time to get back in this. Mobilimensa*" Harry levitates the curio into the hallway behind the armor, then with a flick of his wrist to get it going and a shouted "Depulso!*" added for extra kick, he slams it into the armors back, and sends it crashing into the far wall as an assortment of Order aurors finally reaches them. They were delayed with keeping the younger fighters back from the front.

"**Nice shot mate!**" "Bloody Hell!" "Harry!" "Wotcher?" and "What's the situation?" are all heard from different people at different volumes.

The two who were there first ignore them though so McGonagall can ask, "Why didn't you do that sooner?"

"We tried throwing things at it a while ago, but we ran out pretty quick. There wasn't anything bigger than a flower pot in there, and it was too cramped to do more than dodge and fire as it was swinging that sword."

Sirius and Remus make their way to the group as the student and Professor are talking. "Harry! Brilliant throw that. We were wearing it down though you know," Sirius says as he slaps his Godson on the back.

"Now Sirius, you and I both know we couldn't have kept that up much longer," Lupin says as he steps up to the group. "Splendid shot Harry."

"Thanks-" Creeaaeeaekkeakkkek. "Oh come on!" Harry, and everyone else, turns back into the annex, and sees the suit of armor pushing the curio away from itself and stepping out of the hole in the wall. Slightly dented, but still functional.

"Bloody Hell! Whatever's behind that door had better be worth this!" Sirius yells with a very canine growl.

Lupin (the 3rd!) sighs. "Any ideas?"

"**Hit it till it breaks,**" the ticked off Godfather-Godson pair says in perfect twin stereo.

"We might need something a bit more detailed," Remus says as he steps up and the three form a solid line blocking the hallway, Harry in the middle of his predecessors.

"It's coming," Harry says in an all-business tone. "We need a distraction. Sirius?" The dark cloaked wizard transfigures the curio into another suit of armor and sics it on the black (ha ha! still funny!) armor. It doesn't last long under the flaming sword. "OK, here's the plan. We disarm it with extreme prejudice, then attack it with its own sword."

"And if that doesn't work?" Remus asks, his wand already out at his side, ready to fire at a moments notice.

"We fall back on the first plan. On three, hit its arm with everything you've got. One…two…Three! **EXPELLIARMUS!**" A good six jets of light converge into one on the arm of the armor. McGonagall, Tonks, and Hermione had stepped up to add their spells to the boys'.

The joint spell is strong enough to stick, and though the barrier of the armor takes most of the power out of the impact, the suit still drops the sword. As soon as the sword hits the ground, Harry's in motion. With a quick "Accio!" targeted at the swords hilt, he has it flying into his hands. The weight is too much for him, which he expected, and he uses the momentum of the summoning to enter a backspin and bring the sword up for a cleaving blow that takes the suits left arm at the shoulder on the downswing. Harry stumbles past the armor as the five who helped him disarm it start laying into it with blasting curses.

Kingsley maneuvers around the attackers and comes up behind Harry as the armor is distracted with accumulating dings. "Good work Harry. You can sit the rest out. May I borrow your sword?" Harry passes the hilt of the sword to the much larger black man and he takes it up in both hands. "Yaahhhhhh!" Kingsley charges the armor with the sword and proceeds to finish dismembering and decapitating it in splendid form. Then with a shout of pain Kingsley drops the sword, whose hilt is now wreathed in fire. The fire dies down after a few moments.

"That was unexpected. Why didn't it burn me as well?" Harry thinks aloud.

"Probably the law of possession," Tonks mutters as she leans over the sword and pokes at it with her wand. Harry barely hears her respond, the reason being she happened to be facing away from him when she bent over and his eyes were at just the right level…you get the point; she's hot!

"Come again Nymphy?" Sirius asks after ducking behind Remus for protection. Crazy he may be, but he's not stupid.

Kingsley decides to speak up while Tonks is glaring down her cousin. "Ah, the law of possession. That would explain it."

"Excuse me, Auror Kingsley? What's this Law of Possession? I've never heard of it." Hermione asks.

"No, it's not likely you would," he says as McGonagall sees to his hands. "The Law of Possession is old magic, one of the combat rights of magic. A wizard who defeats another in battle becomes the master of that wizards' wand." Here he turns to Harry, his hands free of any burn marks. Who knew McGonagall was good at medical magic? Maybe it was a class in her day? "If the sword follows the same principle, then since you are the one to have taken the sword from the armor, it would now recognize you as its master. It attacked me because I took the sword from you without a fight."

"Well it's not much use to me," Harry says. "I can barely lift the thing!"

"Still, it is a powerful magical artifact, and it might aid you in the coming ordeals. It would be a good idea, though, to have Fillius examine it to make sure it isn't too dangerous for you to use," McGonagall says. "You can bring it with you when you return to Hogwarts."

"Um, Professor? I don't think it would be safe to take something like that on the train to school," Harry says waving at the fallen and doused sword.

She smiles. "Then it is a good thing you aren't taking the train."

A startled "What?", and one "Wotcher?", circles the group of wizards and witches, skipping a few of the older males, though their implied "What?" is easily read in the now rather visible whites of their eyes.

"_Still got it,"_ McGonagall thinks smugly at the reactions. "Professor Dumbledore would like Mr. Potter to finish the summer at Hogwarts helping the new Defense teacher get used to the halls and manner of the castle. It has been a long time since Hogwarts has hosted a teacher who wasn't already an alumnus."

"He's not? Where's he from? Beaubaxtons? Durmstrang?" Ron finally pipes in. More from him later.

"Professor Springfield is a recent graduate of the Merdianna Magic School in Wales."

"Merdianna? In Wales? I've never heard of it," Ron says, attempting to draw out a useful explication. He fails miserably.

"I'm sure Ms. Granger will have you well informed in no time, once she's had a few days to read up on the matter," McGonagall says without missing a beat. "Now, Mr. Potter, I would suggest you go pack. The Headmaster would like to get Professor Springfield settled as soon as possible."

"Uh, right," Harry says. He gets up from the floor and goes and picks up his new sword. He looks around for something to wrap it in, but soon realizes that as a fruitless effort upon seeing the extent of the damage he helped cause to the annex. What little furniture and decoration had been in the annex was reduced to scrap, and even the two throw rugs were shredded beyond repair.

"Here Harry. Inanimatus Conjurus." Hermione incants, conjuring up a scabbard for Harry.

"Thanks Hermione," Harry says, admiring the leather of his new scabbard.

"Nicely done Hermione," Remus says in his proud-teacher voice.

"It would appear you have been studying Ms. Granger. Though you must not forget the little things when conjuring," McGonagall say, magicing up a matching belt for Harry to attach the sword and sheath. "The details make all the difference. I'll be in the kitchen when you are ready, Mr. Potter." She walks off briskly and is followed by the older contingent, sans the marauders. Tonks finally decides to stop trying to glare down her cousin from across Remus and with a wave to Harry joins the older wizards and witch.

"Well, I guess I'll see all of you start of term," Harry says glumly to his friends.

An array of glances fly between Hermione and Ron, and Ginny, who like her brother has been standing uselessly in the background till now. "Don't worry Harry," Hermione says with fire in her eyes. "You're not going alone." She turns on her heel and heads off after her favorite professor, the two gingers hot on her heels.

"That puts an end to our family bonding time I suppose," Harry says to his Godfather.

"Don't worry Harry. We'll see each other soon," Sirius says, patting his Godson on the back. "You'll be home for the holidays! And if any stuffy old farts say otherwise, then we'll just have to break you out of Hogwarts! Just like old times, eh Moony?"

"Yes. Was it sixth year we- Mr.'s Weasley and Weasley, step away from the cursed armor," Remus says in his best imperious-teacher voice with his I'm-a-werewolf-you're-a-sausage glare. His efforts are of course directed at the only two remaining members of the battle party that came behind McGonagall: the twins.

"Well we just thought-" "-It being magic proof armor and all-" "-that certain parties-" "-like the aurors and the Order-" "-might be interested in purchasing something-" "-like it. And if we could be the ones to provide it-" "**-that'd just be good business.**" Due to the raw confusion of the above lines, no one is sure which twin spoke when, except that they shared the ending.

"…You can have a foot. Produce results and we'll see about the rest of it. Now shoo." A twin picks up a leg and the two run off. "Those two," Remus sighs with a shake of the head. "Thank God there are only the two of them." He turns to Harry and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Now then Harry, let's go get you packed."

* * *

*the Reducto curse isn't very specific on usage when defined in the Harry Potter Lexicon. The best I can define it is 'a focused force bolt that punches holes in stuff.'

*Mobili is Latin for mobile/in motion. Mensa(there's supposed to be an overscore over the e, but I have no idea how to do it) is Latin for table. Basically Mobilimensa is 'move table.' I could have used tabula, a root of table, but its Latin translation is tablet, so would be more appropriately used for something much smaller, like a canvas picture or a slate. Wardrobe, desk, and cabinet, in Latin, were either too long or didn't sound right.

*Depulso is my best guess at the repelling charm, the summoning charms counterpart. Check the Lexicon.

OMAKE

Behind the door.

They opened the door to find a flood of pink. It was the girliest room imaginable. It was so girly, the girls cringed. There were pink walls, pink ceiling, pink furniture, pink rug, pink spread on the pink bed under the pink hangings, pink drapes in the window, and a mural of a prancing pink unicorn on the wall that really pranced. Assorted stuffed animal, plushies, and dolls in all shapes and sizes littered every available surface, including a neon pink teddy bear the size of a grown man in one corner. Through the partially open closet, they could make out the frilliest, laciest, pinkest, girliest dresses imaginable.

"This is just too creepy," Ron says.

"Now I know where we are," Sirius says. "This is the guest room Bella used to use when she visited." All this came out in barely more than a whisper.

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

* * *

Thank you for reading my story. Now, please tell me what you think. Reviews inspire me to update.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: Harry? Negi. Negi? Harry.

The lid of a worn trunk slams shut. "That's all of it." Harry looks around his room at 12 Grimauld Place. It was much more barren now with all of his assorted school things packed away. Harry had managed to get everything but Hedwig's cage and his new sword to fit in his trunk. He shrugs to adjust the belt over his shoulder, the sword being just a bit too long to hang at his waist comfortably. He gives Hedwig a few strokes to settle her on her perch and says, "Dumbledore wants me at Hogwarts for the rest of the summer. I'll be waiting for you there girl." She coos and gives him an affectionate nip on the finger.

Sirius shrinks his trunk and the cage and Harry puts them in his jacket pocket. They go down to meet McGonagall and walk in on a Weasley and Granger trying to get McGonagall to take them with her, and a Ginny trying to talk her mum out of a fit. "Mr. Potter. I take it you're ready to go?" The entire room stills to silence with the red witches abrupt statement.

"Yes Professor," Harry says, again shifting the sword. It was less bothersome than even a few minutes prior, but he was still unused to it.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Minerva?" Mrs. Weasley asks. "Wouldn't Harry be safer here, surrounded by people? There's almost no one at Hogwarts, even with it being the safest place in the world; what if something happens?"

"Albus knows what he's doing. It's not for very long; the break from all the excitement will be good for him. And Hogwarts is safer than letting him run around with certain others," McGonagall tells Mrs. Weasley, the quick glance she throws Sirius at the end earning an affronted "Oi!" from her fellow animagus. "Everything will be just fine Molly."

"But Professor," Hermione insists, "Most every teacher leaves Hogwarts over the summer, and even more are busy with Order work now. There won't be anyone there to keep an eye out for Harry except this new Professor, and the odds are he's dangerous! Two of the four DADA we've had were working for the Dark Lord and another was a useless prat! Take us with you, please!"

McGonagall levels a heavy stare on Hermione. "I assure you that Negi Springfield is fully trustworthy. There will be no threat to Harry at Hogwarts. I will ask the headmaster whether you may come, but I am sure Mr. Potter can manage himself for a few weeks just fine."

"Guys, don't worry, I'll be fine," Harry says, finally intervening. "I'm just going to be giving him a tour, and I could use a break from everything. It'll be nice to see the castle in summer. Besides, you know how good I am in a fight. If it comes down to it, I can hold him off long enough to escape and lose him in the corridors."

Goodbyes circulate: a firm handshake from Kingsley, a tight hug from Hermione, a playful peck from Tonks, a grabbed shoulder and pat from Remus, a tentative smile from Ginny before she resumes glaring at Tonks, a back breaking hug from Mrs. Weasley, a tight handshake with Ron, a headlock-noogie combo from Sirius that earns the old dog a charley horse, and assorted nods to others. Then Harry and McGonagall step outside and Disapparate.

They reappear at the front gates of Hogwarts as the sun sets. There is already a horseless carriage waiting for them, only it's not so horseless. "What are those?" he asks, pointing to the…things tied to the carriage.

McGonagall glances between Harry and the emaciated, skeletal, draconically winged horses harnessed to the carriage and pauses a moment to align her thoughts. "Those are thestrals Mr. Potter. They are only visible to those who have witnessed death. I am not surprised you can see them, but I do wonder why you are only asking this now?"

"I couldn't see them before."

Silence. They quietly get in the carriage and have a voiceless ride up to the castle, Harry slowly loosening up as he watches the sun set over the Hogwarts grounds. McGonagall mentally reminisces over just how Harry is like his parents, with James' spirit of playfulness that Sirius has brought out and Lily's fiery stubbornness. She also frets over how a boy so young shouldn't have the problems, or the eyes, of a man thrice his age.

The carriage pulls up to the front steps and the two climb out, Harry offering his hand to McGonagall as he had stepped out first. She accepts the offer with a nod and the grace of a proper English matron. They enter the unusually quiet Entrance Hall, the only sounds their light footsteps and the crickets out in the grounds echoing around them.

As they enter the Great Hall they are greeted with a stunning display. All five tables are in their usual spots and the full flock of enchanted candles are airborne and lit. "That's odd. Even during Christmas break the hall usually only has the one table and enough light for it, not the whole affair like during the year."

"This is a special occasion, so to speak," McGonagall affirms for him. "Normally those of us here during the summer dine in the kitchens or our chambers at our leisure, or take a walk down to the village. But, a grand showing for the new teacher felt appropriate. Or so the Headmaster said." Harry misses this last bit, partly because it was whispered and partly because he has finally spotted the only unfamiliar face in the hustling crowd at the head table.

Harry picks out Professors Dumbledore, Flitwick, Sprout, Sinistra, the Arithmancy professor Vector, most of the ghosts, Madam's Pomfrey and Pince, Filch, and most surprisingly Professor Trelawney, all at the head table, the witches and ghostly-witches all grouped at one end around the only unfamiliar face. Even Mrs. Norris was rubbing up against his ankles!

At the center of the estrogen cloud is a young man, hardly older than Harry himself, in a beige robe with red hair and eyes. There's a small scar on his cheek and a smile even Harry finds charming so naturally plastered on his face there was no doubt to its sincerity.

The headmaster is in his usual central throne, Professor Flitwick to his immediate right, both watching the proceedings around Negi with awe and amusement. Filch is seated at the far right of the table, switching from forlorn glances at his purring cat and furious ones at the boy instigating the purring through no other means than existing. Dumbledore manages to look up in time to see the new arrivals entering comfortable speaking distance. "Ah! Just the two we were waiting for. Harry, please meet Mr. Negi Springfield, the new Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for this term. And Negi please meet your guide and future student, Harry Potter!"

The activity in the hall ends abruptly at this announcement and all eyes turn to the youngest males present as red irises meet green for the first time. Harry takes the initiative with, "Nice to meet you Professor Springfield. Though I'm surprised. You're so…Young!"

"Professor Springfield graduated at the top of his class," Dumbledore explains, "two years early. Though he is young, he is fully qualified for the position he is filling."

Negi stands and reaches across the table to Harry to shake his hand. Harry responds in kind, finding his smile infectious. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Potter. Might I ask, are you a swordsman by any chance? I wouldn't have guessed…"

"Ah, actually this is a recent acquisition," he says, again readjusting the sword belt with a shrug. "Very recent. Actually, I was hoping to ask Professor Flitwick to examine it. I got it from a…questionable source."

"Oh? How did you come by it?"

"I won it off a suit of armor that was trying to kill me," Harry says with a perfectly sincere expression and tone.

Negi, and everybody else but McGonagall, is suitably dumbstruck. Being by far the most used to people dropping crazy bombshells out of nowhere, Negi eloquently asks, "Eh?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Flitwick, as he's coming to be known to do, breaks the ice that has formed over the current topic. "I would be glad to look it over Mr. Potter. Please bring it by my office after dinner and I'll get started on it," the diminutive professor says just a bit louder than is necessary to break the silence.

"Thank you Sir," Harry says gratefully, the double meaning picked up by most of those present.

Dinner passes in relative peace. The witches, living and not, get nowhere trying to pry personal info from Negi, the wizards similarly gossip about the witches. Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Sinistra ask Harry about his progress on his summer homework; Trelawney just makes a vaguely cryptic comment about bewaring rats that makes Harry grimace. Harry also finds that Dumbledore is still ignoring him when he excuses himself mere minutes after Harry's arrival.

After dinner Harry heads off with Professor Flitwick to get him up to speed about his new sword, with these parting words from McGonagall, "Mr. Potter? The password, for now, is 'Phoenix.'"

Harry provides the diminutive professor the short version of the last chapter as they walk to his office, and finishes the breakdown in time to set the sword on a table in the office before heading off to the Seventh floor of the north tower, and the Gryffindor commons and dorms there in. He un-shrinks his luggage and changes into his pajamas, then settles down for what he hopes will be a peaceful night.

* * *

In two minutes 10 year old Negi had a classroom of junior high girls molesting him. 16 year old Negi has had an entire afternoon. There's no question that he'd have the entire female staff after him by now.

McGonagall walks onscreen. "Matron, am I?" She asks with a very dangerous glint in her eye and her wand hand twitching.

Uh…Gotta Go! Bye! Review!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: One more than 4

Harry is awoken by the sounds of someone scuttling around his dormitory excitedly. His dormitory that's supposed to be empty save for him, in a school that won't have any arrivals for a few weeks at least.

His instincts and learned reflexes kick in as soon as his mind processes the thought. In a moment he is up and his wand is out from under his pillow and trained on the topmost hat on a stack on far too many hats resting on the head of a house elf wearing socks too garish for words. Even the loopy headmaster wouldn't wear purple taffeta with canary yellow polka dots; on his feet anyway, he probably did have a set of robes to match them though.

Harry sighs and lowers his wand while picking up his glasses off his nightstand. "Morning Dobby. How was your summer?"

If the elf hadn't been so busy stuttering and tittering Harry was pretty sure the noise it made when Harry addressed it would have been a 'squee.' "Harry Potter Sir! You's startled Dobby!"

Dobby. He and Harry have a love-hate relationship. Dobby loves Harry for saving the world from the Dark Lord and freeing him from the maltreatment of the Malfoys, and Harry hates the elf's idea of 'helping,' as it often proves fatal to Harry. Dobby worships Harry and Harry really wishes he didn't. Last year Dobby had gotten a paying job at the school with another recently freed elf named Winky. And now he was bent over Harry's trunk, apparently unpacking for him. "Dobby, whatever you're doing, stop it. And never try doing it again."

"Dobby was just putting Harry Potter's things away," the elf says like a junkie that just got their fix.

"Dobby, you're a school elf now," Harry says resignedly as he rubs the bridge of his nose to alleviate a suddenly burgeoning headache. "You do school chores. Unpacking for students is not one of your duties."

"But Harry Potter is a guest now, not student! And school elves needs to make guests comfortable Harry Potter Sir!"

Sigh. "Dobby, go do something else, _somewhere_ else. Please? I can handle unpacking myself."

"Yes Sir, Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby salutes and pops off.

Harry just shakes his head and climbs out of bed to finish the job Dobby started. The elf had apparently only just started on his clothes so Harry was able to quickly pull out something to wear. Then the book fell on his foot.

"Ow!" Harry nurses his squashed toes as he looks at the book that was hidden in his sweater. He doesn't recognize it as one of his, or one of the ones bought for him since he wasn't allowed to go to Diagon Alley to do his shopping. He picks it up and finds no title, or anything, on its surface. He opens it to find a note in his godfathers' sloppy scrawl:

_Harry, I was meaning to start teaching you this while you were here, but no one would let me. If you're reading this then I was able to sneak it past everyone. This book is the first step towards making you a true Marauder. Study it all year and come summer we'll be able to get started on your proper animagus training. Make me proud!_

_Padfoot_

Harry's pained foot is forgotten in his glowing, beaming smile and jumping whoop of excitement. "You rule Padfoot! I'd kiss you if you were a girl! Ha ha!" He looks back to reread it only to find an addendum in the much more refined script of his former Defense professor.

_Padfoot isn't the only sneaky one. If you have any questions you can write to me; they'll be watching Padfoot for things like this. And be sure to let him know I slipped this past him. I have a camera ready for it. Good luck pup._

_Moony_

Harry doesn't react nearly as excitedly at the second passage, but he doesn't try and suppress the laughter the prank induces either. He sticks the book deep into his trunk and takes his clothes for a quick, much needed, shower.

* * *

Harry heads down to the Great Hall for breakfast in tied on jeans and a billowing sweater. He reaches the Great Hall only to find Negi standing at the entrance to the hall, staring blankly at the much emptier dining facility and the glowing sun rising in the ceiling.

"Morning Professor."

Negi starts at Harry's call, having not heard the boy walk up to him, even though the vacant Entrance Hall echoes greatly. "Oh, Harry, good morning. I just came in for some breakfast and, well, as you can see there isn't any. Do you know why by any chance?"

Before Harry can answer the two's attention is drawn by the fluttering of feathered wings echoing through the Great Hall. They turn their eyes to the snowy white bird that just flew in through one of the high windows. The bird, an owl, performs a few loops to get oriented then dives for Harry. Negi catches Harry calmly lifting his left arm before him and watches the smile bloom on his face, so lets the defensive spell he was forming die on his lips.

"Morning girl," Harry says to the, quite beautiful, snowy white owl as she alights on his raised arm. "Have a good flight?" he asks her as he strokes her head just the way she likes. She responds with a gentle nip to his finger, then stares at the bright eyed redhead she doesn't recognize as his usual dimwitted redhead companion, which she knows he couldn't be since said dimwit was probably still sleeping back at the grimy wizard home she left earlier that night.

Over a hundred miles away, the dimwitted redhead previously spoken of shoots up in bed and sneezes horrendously. Instead of wiping up the mess from so horrendous a sneeze, he proceeds to put head to pillow once again. Inconsequently, the snot covering his nose stopped his snoring, and kept him from smelling the first whiff of breakfast, so he was late getting to it and didn't get any blueberry pancakes. Truly a bad summer morning for Ronald Bilius Weasley.

Back at Hogwarts, Harry notices Hedwig's interest in their present company. "Oh right. Hedwig, this is Professor Springfield, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. Professor, this is Hedwig."

"Nice to meet you Hedwig." Negi gives the bird his standard, overwhelming greeting smile. Hedwig gives him an appraising look and Negi can _feel_ her calculating the value of his character and trustworthiness in the instant of her stare. Eventually she softens her stare and gives him a polite hoot and nod. Hedwig turns her attention away from the young mage to survey the barren Great Hall before turning back to her master, the question apparent in her eyes shared by the two males' stomachs, _"Where's the grub?"_ She'd timed her departure and arrival perfectly so she'd get some food fresh on the plates, so where was it?

The three return their attention to the Great Hall once again following a series of pops and thunks. They find themselves faced with a small army of house-elves equipped with wash pails, mops, and brushes. The elves find themselves faced with the new DADA, who current poles favored as lasting until the last month of term but not completing the year or returning because of a mental breakdown from overexposure to paperwork at such a young age, the Great Harry James Potter Sir, defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the pipe monster, the nasty air fouling Dementors, and the only student and wizard who was nice to them -his only bad traits being that he hung around with that nasty girl who said they should get paid, and freeing Dobby only so he could get hired at Hogwarts- and Harry Potter's owl, the only one who was nice enough not to mess on a freshly cleaned floor.

Negi, being unused to dealing with house-elves, kept his mouth shut.

Hedwig, being unable to speak human or elf, kept her beak shut.

The elves, being not all that bright and by nature not the instigators of conversation, kept their peace.

Harry, having found himself in far too many situations where it fell to him to make an effort and recognizing the signs, decided to ask the nearest elf why the hall was cleared, and where they three of them could get some breakfast. The elf tells him, with great consensus from its fellows, that the elves have to scrub down the Great Hall before they can wax the floors and that the new Professor, Harry Potter's owl, and The Great Harry Potter Sir can get some breakfast in the kitchens like most of the other teachers.

After a polite thank you from the two with the right vocal chord-lips combination Harry leads them through a door to the right of the main staircase, down a floor, and along a hallway to a large painting of a bowl of fruit. Negi amazedly watches him tickle the painted on pear until it turns into a doorknob, then they walk into the kitchens and are immediately set upon by the elves. The elves hurriedly seat them at one of the replica tables.

"Would you like something to eat, Harry Potter Sir, New Professor Sir?" a young elf maid in a togas like the rest of the elves present asks.

Harry answers while Negi is still goggling at the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. "Thank you. I'll just have some bacon and eggs, toast and jam, and some pumpkin juice. Oh, and a plate of bacon and sausage for Hedwig. What would you like Professor Springfield?"

Negi snaps out of his tourist-like trance. "Er, how about some blueberry pancakes, and the same as Harry for the rest?"

"Right away Professor Springfield Sir!" she scurries off to the ovens to deliver their orders to her fellow elves.

"You seem to be well acquainted with the elves, and the rest of the staff." Negi states more than asks.

"Things were apparently very bad for the elves before I defeated Voldemort-" and here every elf in the room lets out an ear piercing wail at the name of the great snake-y bastard. Right when they stop wailing and start switching to desperate pleading not to say the name, he shouts "Sorry! I'll watch myself from here on! Now please, calm down!" The elves do calm down at his words, though whispered conversation about the Dark Lord and Harry's lack of fear for him permeate the background for the rest of the three's breakfast. "Sorry about that Professor. I forgot how riled up they get when you say his name aloud. People really need to get over that now that he's back. Even his own forces don't refer to him by name, the stupid gits." Harry takes a moment to calm himself down and get away from ranting-mode. "Anyways, after I defeated…him, things supposedly got better for the elves, and most other magical creatures. I'm highly respected by the elves and centaurs at least, though I haven't really had much interaction with anything but wizards in the past few years."

An further explanation is cut short by the return of the elf maid. She and a few other elves come toting heaping platters of blueberry pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs in three varieties, toast in four, and several pitchers of jams and pumpkin juice.

"That's…a lot of food." Negi sweatdrops.

Harry sweatdrops similarly. "They get a little...zealous about serving others. We should have been a bit more specific. Don't worry about eating it all; they won't be insulted or anything. And we can't have you getting sick before we even begin the tour," Harry chuckles, Negi following soon after.

* * *

After they eat, Harry begins the tour. He decides to start Negi off with the most important areas, like the Entrance and Great Halls, the Library and infirmary, the teachers lounge, and he makes sure Negi knows how to get between Dumbledore's office ("The password is always one sweet or another. Start with 'lemon drops,' and then try anything that comes to mind.") and his own classroom and office, and the Infirmary. Along the way he shows him all the bathrooms in each area, and it is at one such bathroom they get separated on their way to lunch. He was definitely going to take Harry's advice the next time he said _"Avoid at all cost."_ But who would have thought that the ghost of the girl's loo would be just as perverted as the rest of his former students! He really would have to be careful to avoid Myrtle.

Negi arrives in the Entrance Hall to find a partially restored Great Hall. The rear half of the hall is shining floor-to-ceiling from the noon-day sunlight reflecting off the freshly polished floor and wet-washed walls where the Staff table was usually placed. Said table, though, was currently at the front of the hall seating the teachers from the night before; Professors Trelawney and Sinistra, and the man Filch, being the only ones not there. But there is a new addition he doesn't recognize.

A witch in a pink cardigan with a black bow in her mousy hair is standing with her back to the Entrance Hall. When she speaks, it's in a fluttery, girlish, high-pitched voice that sends a chill down his spine. "As you can clearly see Mr. Dumbledore, under Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three, if you cannot find a qualified teacher for the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the ministry will supply one for you."

"Well, this will put much less strain on finding new instructors every year. I'll have to thank Cornelius for removing the extra stress from our shoulders. Maybe it will come in handy next year," Dumbledore says, his smile broad and eyes a-twinkle.

"It's effective as early as this year-" The pink clad witch starts, but is cut off.

"Yes, I suppose it is; though we won't be having need to invoke it," the twinkling of his eyes doubles as he says this.

"You expect to find a suitably qualified instructor before September 1st?" she simpers, obviously covering her potent displeasure with sarcastic tolerance.

"I've already found one." The twinkling mounts incredibly. If the room hadn't been so well lit you could have used the light from his eyes to read by. "He's been standing behind you for several moments."

The witch turns, finally giving Negi a good view of her. He regrets it immediately. She's a dumpy woman, bulging eyes in a broad, flabby face, no noticeable neck, and a wide, slack mouth. When she opens her mouth he can see pointy teeth. He's shocked that such a girlish voice could come from such a toad faced woman. Had he seen her face first, he would have expected a croak.

"And you are?" she asks in her spine-chillingly-wrong voice.

Negi quashes his urge to shudder involuntarily. "Negi Springfield."

She "Hn's" girlishly, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. "You seem far too young to be _qualified_. You should still be in your…6th year?"

Negi lets the insult agitate him so the indignation can overpower his revulsion. "Actually, I graduated two years early," He says levelly, no emotion apparent on his features.

"Someone with that kind of achievement would have been big news. I've never heard of you."

"I graduated from the Merdiana School in Wales. I'm here as part of my post graduation internship."

"Merdiana…you're a-a- a Mage?" She's simpering again. Negi can't decide whether her voice or the look in her eyes is the more violating.

"Yes. I am a mage." Her eyes deepen into pits of disgust, shadowed by her unflinchingly false snake-smile.

She takes a moment to shake the dark look from her eyes. "Well, I appear to be done here. Good day, Mr. Springfield." She makes her way out of the Great Hall, and hopefully, the school.

Negi denies his lips the right to utter the words 'Toad Bitch.' It isn't the proper manner of a gentleman to speak in such a way. Nor is it the kind of thing a ten –eleven? Twelve? Gah! Time travel sucks!– year old should say. Inner Negi doesn't hold back in his childish tantrum though, and even starts composing an eerily familiar song, _"Oh Umbridge is a Toad Bitch, She's a big fat Toad Bitch, She's the fattest Toad-"_

Negi forcibly wrenches his thoughts away from his inner compositions as Harry finally arrives in the Great Hall…only to meet Umbridge on the way out. "Now isn't this a surprise." She titters girlishly. Negi's skin crawls, and judging by everyone else's reactions, they're in a similar state. "Mr. Harry Potter. I don't believe we have been properly introduced."

"No, we haven't, Madam Undersecretary. Doris was it? Doris Scrimmage?" The staff can barely hold its glee. She can barely hold her temper.

"_Delores Umbridge,_" she says in a voice as sharp as a pair of scissors, and pitched like the dog getting neutered by them.

"Ah, of course. My mistake. I must not have heard Percy clearly. How goes the investigation into the unauthorized dementor attack by the way?"

"It…goes. What is a student doing at school so many weeks before the start of term?"

"The Headmaster asked me to familiarize Professor Springfield with Hogwarts. My summer was shot, so I thought it'd make for an interesting change of pace. It's definitely broken up the monotony of waiting for Voldemort to strike."

The silence following the various squeaks, shouts, violent winces, and clattering tableware could be cut with a knife.

Her stare is icy daggers. His is crimson arrows. "The Ministry's official stance on that matter has been made quite clear. The Dark Lord is dead," she mutters in her simpering voice.

He returns with a terse mutter of his own. "Keep telling everyone that. They'll stop listening when the bodies start piling up."

If looks could kill, Harry was pretty sure the one Umbridge was shooting him would have made a horntail decide discretion was the better part of valor. "I believe I've taken up enough of your time. Good day Mr. Potter. Everyone," she pans the staff table with her muted-fury-filled eyes, the fury becoming less muted when she reaches Negi.

Harry keeps his mouth shut until she's out of range, then says, as if to make up for Negi's absolute refusal, uncaring of the presence of the staff "Toad bitch," complete with clear elocution.

"Mr. Potter, language. Were school in session I would dock you points," McGonagall says, even though she, and others, privately swear to give him a few dozen points for Gryffindor balls and uncharacteristic self control.

* * *

After lunch, Harry and Negi spent the afternoon making sure Negi knew all the areas they covered that morning, plus the kitchens (when diner rolls around), and all the best routes between them.

They end the day at the Defense classroom, and Negi invites Harry in for tea.

"How's the tea Harry?"

"It's fine. Thank you Professor."

"Actually, I should be thanking you. I'm sure there are a lot of better things you could be doing with your summer instead of helping familiarize me with Hogwarts."

Harry is silent for a while, an array of emotions overtaking his features before he returns them to neutrality. Though his control of his voice doesn't match that of his face. "Y-Yeah…right."

"Harry?"

"It's nothing," Harry says quickly, finding his feet quite interesting.

"Harry, I'm your teacher now, you can trust me. I want to help," he says with a determined look.

More silence. Harry locks eyes with Negi and delves the crimson depths of his eyes and sees the radiant, honest desire to help. He returns to staring at his feet. He doesn't know why, but he decides to tell Negi his story.

"You know the story right? About how I defeated Voldemort and…became an orphan?" Negi nods solemnly, a distant flash of pain shadowing his eyes. "Well it doesn't end there. While his- while Voldemort's body was still _warm_, I was brought to the home of the people who would raise me. Dumbledore left me on their doorstep that very night. They're muggles you see, they don't really understand magic. I didn't learn about the magical world until my eleventh birthday when I met Hagrid, he's the gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor, he should be back before the start of term. If I could, I'd never leave Hogwarts. The only reason I even return there every year is because the headmaster tells me to. Even with everything that's tried to kill me here, I would still rather be where people know me, where they…care, and want to care. I'm almost glad for the Dementor attack. That's about the only thing that could have gotten me out of there early."

"Speaking of Dementors," Negi says, trying to steer the conversation away from the angst, much to the author's relief. "Did you really produce a fully corporeal Patronus, and use it to fight off two dementors at once?" Negi asks, boyish enthusiasm radiating from him.

"Er, yes," Harry says, glad for the change of topic. "And I used it in third year to fight off a horde of them to save me and my friends."

"My friends and I." Harry just stares at Negi dumbstruck. "Er, sorry. Teacher's instinct? Anyway, can you show me? I've only seen a Patronus once before."

"Sure." Harry takes out his wand and lets his mind play over the thoughts he's used to form the Patronus before. Sirius, his friends, flying, succeeding, his parents, all pass through his mind as he fishes for a sufficiently good memory to charge the Patronus. Then he remembers the book from that morning, and all the hope that it brought to him when he realized what it was he had in his hands. With an ecstatic smile Harry points his wand up over the desks and calls, "Expecto Patronum!"

Just as it has multiple times before, a brilliant silver phantom-stag erupts from the end of Harry's wand. It trots a lap around the classroom before returning to Harry's side, where he proceeds to reach out like he did over a year ago to stroke its muzzle.

Negi is stunned speechless at the entire spectacle, and his surprise only deepens as he watches Harry stroke the phantom stag as it fades into vapor, leaving behind an ambient feeling of joy and hope.

"That-that-That was incredible! The size! The power! The control! Simply incredible! And you're not even breathing hard!" Negi explodes once he finds his voice.

Harry just cocks his head quizzically. "Should I be breathing hard?"

"After a display like that you most definitely should!" Harry just gives him a bemused look. Negi sighs, "Let me explain. If two wizards, all things being equal, were to cast the Patronus charm, with one Patronus being larger than the other, the larger one would easily repel multiple dementors in an area at a moderate rate, and the smaller one would easily drive any lone dementor away but its range would be much reduced from the larger. Your Patronus is large, but it has the ability to repel a mass of dementors instantly from across a wide area. The power and control you display with it is astonishing. It's almost unheard of for most adult wizards who've mastered the spell to use it as you do. And you've been doing it since third year? Your Defense professor two years ago must have been something else entirely to be able to teach you that."

Harry smirks at the praise for his, thus far, favorite Defense professor. "Professor Lupin is the best we've had these past four years. He specialized in monsters and how to fight them. Our first class he had us exorcise a boggart, and our final was an obstacle course of the lesser beasts we'd covered. There isn't a student, outside of Slytherin and some diehard Gildoroy Lockhart fans, third year and above who won't tell you Remus Lupin is an incredible teacher."

"He sounds like a great man. I wish he were here now; I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to teach everyone this year. And I have no idea how I'm going to keep seven different schedules organized." Now, for those reading, this isn't technically untrue. Even though Negi has a year of experience teaching at an all-girls private school, he only had to divide his duties between up to three years of junior high, and he was teaching a purely academic course. He has students from middle through high school to teach now, and he's teaching them a type of magic he doesn't personally prescribe to, even though it's in a field he excels at.

"I could write him if you like. He's a close family friend, and he loved teaching here. I'm sure he would be glad to help you with your schedule."

"That would be a great help Harry, thank you." The late hour finally decides to make itself known by twittering loudly from the clock on the wall. "Oh look at the time. You should be getting to bed Mr. Potter. Same time and place tomorrow morning?"

Harry gets up to leave. "Sure. Outside the Great Hall at eight. See you then professor. Good night."

"Good night Harry."

* * *

So ends this very long chapter I couldn't think up a name for. Action coming.

Reviews are the meat of an authors' inspiration. The more I get, the more I feel like writing and posting. I'm sure my fellow authors/authoresses would agree.


	7. Chapter 7

To clarify: Negi went to Hogwarts to AVOID involvement with anyone he knows. No one else from Negima will be involved in this leg of the story. This leg being fifth year.

Please enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 6: How good are you?

Over the next week and a half, Harry proceeded to get Negi more familiar with Hogwarts than even he was. They scoured the castle, getting Negi fully used to the inner workings of it all. It was a useful experience for Harry as well: he'd never actually had a reason to delve the depths of the library, or visit the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw dorms, or the Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, and Ancient Runes classrooms, or the rest of the teachers offices, the prefect quarters, the Head boy/Girl quarters, or to use half of the passages and secret doors that he showed to Negi.

They did the grounds one day, starting with the greenhouses, then the Whomping Willow, the lake, and then heading down to Hagrid's cabin. They followed lunch with a lap of the outer rim of the Forbidden Forest ("Known to be occupied by Centaurs, Unicorns, Acromantula, Hippogriffs, and assorted magical creatures I've had the pleasure of NOT meeting face to face." "I heard there were werewolves?" "No. There was the one, but he left a few years ago."). They finished up with a tour of the Quidditch stadium, where they talked about their mutual love of flying, and of Harry's many incredible catches as the Gryffindor Seeker. They headed back to the castle for dinner, deciding it was too late to test the other's aptitude in the air.

They also went down to Hogsmead another day and Harry introduced Negi to butterbeer. The events that followed were long remembered by the people of Hogsmead: with great pleasure by the witches and incredible envy by the wizards. Half way around the world, an ermine had the worst nightmare of his life as a mountain of money and cards got further and further out of his reach while he screamed "Why Aniki?_ WHY?_"

Remus Lupin came by several times with his big black lab Snuffles, who seemed particularly keen on chasing Mrs. Norris, taunting Professors McGonagall and Snape (Negi didn't quite agree with Harry as to whether the man produced the grease naturally), enamoring himself to Professors Sinistra and Vector, and slobbering over Harry, who would then walk off to entertain the dog while Negi and Remus worked on his course schedule.

This particular morning Negi got up early and decided to be the endeavoring one and go meet Harry at the Gryffindor tower instead of Harry having to come to him. That's when he heard the screaming.

He shouts the password to the Fat Lady and she pops open for him halfway through his saying it. Negi finds Harry struggling with a blanket on a lounger in the common room, textbooks and parchment littering a table next to him with a frantic House Elf he recognizes as Dobby, the one that seemed to worship Harry; at least, more openly than the rest of them. Dobby is in a chattering panic trying to think of what to do.

"Dobby! What happened? What is going on?" Negi questions the panicked elf as he rushes in.

"Professor Negi Springfield Sir," the little blue whacko shrills out in a rush. "Dobby was coming to wake Harry Potter up and be offering to make Harry Potter a great big feast for breakfast, but when Dobby got's here Harry potter was shaking and tossing on the couch! And then Harry Potter started yelling and Dobby panicked and then Negi Springfield Sir came in and-" Harry shoots up straight and cuts off the elf as he grabs his forehead with a hiss of pain. He starts shaking like a startled deer and panting like he ran a marathon.

"Harry!" Harry flinches at the shout and turns to face Negi as the professor reaches him. "Harry are you all right? What happened?"

"Pant, pant…Professor…? It-it was just a bad dream is all. Just a dream." He takes a couple deep breaths. As he regains control of his breathing he stops shaking.

Negi just stares at him, worried incredulity written all over his face. "By the way you were screaming, I'd say it was more like a nightmare, and a major one at that!"

Harry just sighs as he relaxes into the couch. "Ye-yeah…yeah, it was."

Negi frowns at Harry, but nods and turns to the still frantic elf. "Dobby, could you go get us some breakfast please? Something sweet?"

"And Dobby?" The elf refocuses on Harry and seems to calm slightly at the focus in the boys eyes. "Please don't mention this to anyone."

"If Harry Potter asks then not a peep will be heard about it from Dobby," the little elf says solemnly, then pops away to fetch them some grub.

"Why didn't you want Dobby to tell anyone that you had a nightmare?" Negi asks Harry, his worry rising with his confusion.

"Because…it's what I ask him to do every time he sees me having one," Harry says, clearly reluctant to broach the topic.

"Why?" Negi asks, the frown on his face so out of place that an army of women(girls really) would gladly maul the one who put it there. "Would it be that bad for other people to know you were having nightmares? They might be able to help you."

"No," Harry says bitterly, the echo of painful experience strong in his voice. "They'd just put more security on me and give me more of those looks. I'm gonna have enough of that later with the things the Prophet is saying about me now on top of what Skeeter was writing about me last year."

"Skeeter?" Negi mumbles, not recognizing the name.

Harry apparently heard him, as he continues, "Rita Skeeter, a dirty reporter for the Daily Prophet. She ran a bunch of exaggerated and outright false articles on me during the tournament last year."

Dobby picks just then to pop back in with three other house elves and thrice as many platters of food. "Breakfast Professor Springfield Sir! Harry Potter sir! We's didn't know what you would like, so we's brought you some of everything!"

Harry sighs at the elf's exuberance and slaps on a wan smile. "Thank you Dobby, everyone. Just set them on the tables and you can return to your duties."

The elves do as he says, and one of them is heard whispering, "You was right Dobby. He really is courteous to House Elves!"

"That's why he's the great Harry Potter!" Dobby is heard whispering back. They vanish with another *pop.*

Harry shakes his head and sighs again. He gives Negi a reserved grin. "Well we probably shouldn't let all this food go to waste. Care to join me Professor?"

Negi returns the grin reluctantly, obviously wishing that the conversation had not so suddenly shifted, and starts making up a plate. As he's buttering a scone, he asks, "So…what did you dream about?"

Harry pauses with his silverware in hand hovering over his own plate. He starts slicing up a sausage with purpose. "Just memories I guess. The past two years have had some…dark moments. Just forget about it, ok? I'll be fine." The two continue breakfast in forced silence.

As the two are winding down in their eating, Negi says, "Harry, I'd like to see where you stand in practical Defense, to get a feel for what to expect from the rest of the students."

Harry blinks at him in surprise. He lowers his forkful of hash and says, "Um, I don't think I'd be the best person to use for that. I spent most of last year learning combat spells for the tournament-"

"Exactly," Negi says with an iron stare. "You are the top of your year in practical ability, possibly in the next year or above as well. You were able to duel Voldemort to a draw. If I know where you stand in ability, then I know where I need to get everyone else up to. Plus you can help me find any gaps in everyone's knowledge from the broken teaching styles of your various teachers over the years. I can't believe the number of them Hogwarts goes through." The last he says with a curious shake of his head.

"Yeah," Harry says, finally getting the hash to his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "According to rumor the position is cursed. Hogwarts hasn't been able to hold any teacher in Defense Against the Dark Arts for more than a few years for the past few decades."

"That is odd. I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing. But then, it _is_ only a rumor. There's probably nothing to it."

"Well, just be careful of yourself. Only one of our last four Defense professors left his post willingly. And in reasonably similar shape to what he arrived in."

Negi sweatdrops.

* * *

They decide to have their practice duel on the lawn.

Harry had changed into his combat robes from the year before: thickly padded crimson and gold robes over his most comfortable set of sneakers, jeans, and t-shirt. Negi was in his usual green tweed suit and red tie, though he decided to leave the large staff he usually carried around and his beige robe behind in his classroom.

They bow, as ordained by the rules of propriety. They never lose eye contact and watch as an eerily similar hardness washes over each of their faces. You'd be hard pressed to remember that the two weren't actually related.

Harry starts, predictably, with a shouted "Expelliarmus!", and is blocked by Negi's equally shouted and timed "Deflexio!", sending Harry's shot skyward.

Harry is so stunned that he shouts his thoughts aloud. "Wait; hold on. Was that a wandless shield! And Deflexio? I've never heard of that shield charm before."

"Deflexio is an all purpose defensive spell," Negi says, slipping into lecture mode; the abrupt question making him momentarily forget the battle. "Unlike the wall formed by Protego, it forms more of a curve. Attacks slide off along the edge instead of trying to stop them head on. It takes more energy than Protego, for example, but it's less likely to break under multiple or more powerful blasts. And as for the wandless casting…well, I'm a mage."

"Mage?" Harry asks. "Isn't that just another word for wizard?"

"Actually, no. A mage is a rare class of magic user, _"On Earth anyway"_ and is just as dissimilar to your average wizard as an Alchemist."

"Like Nicolas Flamel?"

"Yes, exactly. An Alchemist uses magic and science to conduct rituals and create potions of an incredible variety and wide range of usefulness. A Wizard uses their inherent magical ability to cast efficient, compact spells quickly. A mage uses their inherent magic as well, but they also draw on the power around them, extracting energy directly from nature for much more powerful, but noticeably slower, spellcasting. The reason Wizards are the prominent magical group is largely due to the laziness of most magicals. The dedication and effort needed to learn the more demanding disciplines is beyond most people."

"And the wandless casting? I mean, I've seen loads of silent magic from adults, and even some simple wandless magic from McGonagall and Dumbledore, but I've never even _heard_ of wandless spells being tried, let alone used effectively, in active combat."

"Ah, I was getting to that. I'm not really using wandless magic, see?" Negi draws Harry's attention to the ring on his left pointer finger. "Though I can cast spells up to a certain difficulty without a medium, I use this ring as a focus for most spells when I'm in combat."

"Medium? You mean like a wand?"

"Yes. Um, maybe we should save the explanations for after the duel?"

"Er, oh, right. Well then, whenever you're ready professor," Harry say taking a ready dueling stance, a slight smirk slipping through.

Negi responds to the smirk in kind. "Here I come! _Sagita Magica! Series Lucis*!_"

Harry's only thought as he watches the tide of magic arrows fly at him is much different than most would think. _"Well. Fuck. This is not going to end well for me."_

* * *

Expelliarmus, Deflexio, and Protego are common enough spells that I'm not even going to bother with explaining them.

*Sagita Magica! Series Lucis! – Magical Archer! Seven Arrows of Light!

* * *

That's the chapter. Next ones short, so it shouldn't take long.

I hope you enjoyed, now please review.


	8. Chapter 8

I said this one wouldn't take long. I know I could have broken this up to be the end of Chapter 6 and beginning of what is currently Chapter 8, but I didn't feel like it.

When we last left our intrepid hero-in-the-make, he was in the (practice) duel of his life against his new (and secretly much younger) Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who just shot an array of magic arrows at him. His thoughts on this were _"Well. Fuck. This is not going to end well for me."_ Now we (meaning I) return you to your regularly scheduled heavily one-sided fight.

* * *

Chapter 7: FIIIGHTTT!

"_Dammit, there's too many to block! And if I dodge back or sideways they'll still get me. So-"_ As the arrows zero in on Harry he raises his wand to Negi and incants "Confringo*!" closely following his spell with his own body in a dive-&-roll, narrowly missing the arrows converging at his back.

As Negi is blinking away the surprise at Harry's choice of tactic, having dodged aside as the blasting curse came at him, Harry comes out of his roll and looses another hex that Negi doesn't quite catch that obscures his vision by blasting up the dirt at his feet*.

Negi jumps away from the spray of dirt and faces three consecutive stunners from Harry. This time, Negi's ready with a Deflexio. As the crimson magic bolts rebound from his shield, Negi begins his own counter offensive, deciding to switch blasting for capture. "Sagita Magica! Series Aerialis*!"

This time, Negi remembered the one in the center. _"Dammit!"_ Harry uses the same hex as before to obscure himself in a cloud of dirt. This does not stall Negi in the slightest. His arrows of wind strike through the cloud and wrap tightly around their target.

"_Whew. Harry _is_ good. With some work he could be incred- Is that log flying at my head?"_ Indeed, Negi finds that a log _is_ flying at his head, and at a considerable speed at that. "Flans salatio pulverea*!" The burst of wind from his spell sends the once mighty tree arcing back towards the forest from whence it came, and disperses the rest of Harry's impromptu smoke screen. What he sees shocks him. Harry is standing, completely unbound, several feet from where he was the last time Negi caught sight of him, and captured in his arrows is- "You took off your robes." It's less a question, more a statement.

"Well, they were weighing me down just a bit." Harry is smiling. It's boyish, it's bright, and if any number of Japanese junior high girls, and several British and maybe French ones, were to see his face at this moment, they would "sqeee!" their hearts out.

Negi beams at the creativity and fortitude of his new student. He decides it's time to really test the boys' limits. "Get ready Harry! This next one's going to be powerful!" Negi starts gathering electrical energy in his hands, Harry's only warning to the nature of the attack being the ambient crackle of static electricity carried to him by the wind. "Rastel Maskil Magister! Fulgaratio Albicans*!"

As the three foot wide lightning bolt comes barreling at Harry like an angry bull, only one thought manages to flit through his head, _"My shield's not strong enough!"_ As is the way of the mind, it focuses on the two key words 'shield' and 'strong' and manages to draw up this recent explication from his short term memory: _"Deflexio is an all purpose defensive spell. Unlike the wall formed by Protego, it forms more of a curve. Attacks slide off along the edge instead of trying to stop them head on. It takes more energy than Protego, for example, but it's less likely to break under multiple or more powerful blasts."_ Seeing as it's the only thing he has, Harry firms the resolve he's built over the past four years walking through fire, executing insane maneuvers in midair on the fly, facing down dragons and other assorted monsters, and pitting himself against Voldemort. He pours all of his focus and power through his wand and yells "DEFLEXIO!"

* * *

It is several minutes before anyone moves. Harry is lying on his back, breathing heavily but otherwise unharmed. Negi is still in the exact same position he was when he launched his attack, only his face having moved into a position of slack-jawed, glassy-eyed shock, still trying to process what just happened.

He had watched Harry's resolve firm and his power reach its apex a mere moment after he launched his own attack. He clearly heard Harry yell "Deflexio," and he clearly saw the boy form the advanced, mage exclusive, shield that should have been well beyond him. He also saw his own massive (well, massive to a normal person) lightning bolt get completely deflected away from the young wizard, without a hint of the shield or boy buckling under the pressure. What truly shocked him though was that Harry was not only unharmed, but still conscious and, if what he was feeling was right, was recharging his severely depleted magical batteries at a rate that should have been impossible for a normal wizard. In a moment of weakness that would have Eva and Chamo smirking and the rest of 3-A stunned mute, he thinks thus, _"What the Fuck? What the Hell is with this guy? Where in Gods name is he pulling these surprises from? Just who is Harry Potter?"_

Negi finally breaks from his stupor as Harry sits up with a groan, his breathing having evened out, and says, "Ok, not doing _that_ again anytime soon." Harry looks up to see Negi still standing in his attack pose. "So, do I pass?"

Negi finally shakes off the last of his shock and trots up to Harry to give him a hand getting up, restoring his normal endearing smile in the process. "You pass Mr. Potter, with flying colors I might add." Harry finds Negi's smile infectious and mirrors it with one of his own.

Before the two can converse any further, they are startled by a shrill shout of "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" They turn to find McGonagall practically flying over the lawns to them, Professors Sprout and Flitwick trailing well behind.

Negi shifts his left hand to the back of his neck in the now familiar tell of embarrassment he picked up in Japan. "Ah Minerva. Sorry about that. I was just evaluating Harry here. The Headmaster did say he'd be one of my best, and I have to agree. In the few minutes we dueled he met, exceeded, and overwhelmed all of my expectations!"

"Be that as it may- MR. POTTER!" The abrupt change in McGonagall's tone, though welcome since it means she's no longer berating Negi, is cause for concern, seeing as it was instigated by Harry barely saving himself from collapsing.

"I'm fine, I'm OK," Harry says blearily coming out of his near-swoon-that-wouldn't-have-been-a-swoon-because-even-though-he's-not-macho-he's-still-man-enough-that-he-doesn't-swoon. "I'm just a little tired is all. That last exchange really took a lot out of me. I'll be fine in a bit."

McGonagall closes her eyes and breathes a long-suffering sigh. "N-Professor Springfield, please escort Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing. And as for you Mr. Potter…take it easy. You are still technically on vacation after all."

"Right Professor. I'll try to remember that," Harry says. Negi offers him his shoulder and Harry gladly slings his arm over it. McGonagall looks at the backs of the retreating duo sadly as they set off for the castle, both boys waving off Flitwick and Sprout as the two come into reach.

* * *

*Confringo – true blasting curse. Explodes the target. Harry aimed at the ground beside Negi.

*There is no true hex to do this in cannon. I'm accepting ideas though.

*Sagita Magica! Series Aerialis! – Magical Archer! (7) Arrows of Wind!

*Flans salatio pulverea! – Dance of wind blown dirt.

*Rastel Maskil Magister! Fulgaratio Albicans! – White Lightning. Negi got a little excited at Harry's tenacity. This would have laid Harry up for…about as long as the magic drain from deflecting it, actually. Though it would have hurt a hell of a lot more.

* * *

One thing I can't stand is how other authors here have Negi go into full-freaking-power mode for a simple challenge. I mean, do you use a tank to knock down an apartment door? No! _You use your foot!_ And I really hate how they paint Harry, even experienced auror!Harry as a completely inept fighter. He knows how to dodge and run, he's been doing it all his life! Is he a combat genius or stellar tactician? No. But he does have good instincts, better reflexes, an insane amount of luck, the creativity of a Marauder, and a stubborn streak two miles wide. He can duel most wizards under the table if pressed, so I'm sure he can make Negi _try_ a little to take him out.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8: How it fits together

It was a serene scene really. Well, as serene as a medical ward can get anyways. Harry had just opened his eyes and was taking his time with sitting up. He's in his usual bed; third from Madam Pomfrey's door and the main entrance, centered on the East wall with the best view out of the west windows into the setting sun. Though he hated how often he was in this room, he had to admit that the view from his bed was really remarkable._ "When did I start thinking of it as mine? Last year?"_

"Ah, finally awake I see." Harry turns to the entrance to see Negi in his tweed suit and beige robe with his cloth wrapped staff on his back and a notebook in his hand. He walks in towards Harry. "It's already six; you've been asleep for eight hours. Madam Pomfrey was certain you'd sleep till morning."

"Good evening Professor," Harry yawns. "You're right, I probably would have slept till dawn, but the sun woke me up."

Negi chuckles as he pulls up a chair. "Yes, it does do that sometimes doesn't it? My, this is quite the view you have here. Front row seat to a brilliant sunset."

"It's the best in the house," he chuckles. "I didn't miss dinner did I?"

"You did, fortunately. That Umbridge woman came by to assure us that the Ministry will be taking great strides to 'improve the quality of Hogwarts teaching methods' over the course of the year." You can tell by their joint scowls their opinions on the matter. As is his way, Negi takes it on himself to brighten things up. "But not to worry! It can't be as bad as all that. Oh, and Dobby said to call and he'll have some dinner for you 'like that!'" Negi snaps his fingers while imitating the elf's voice. "I really do wonder why you didn't just take him on as your own after you helped free him from his old master."

"It's…complicated. I told you how I live with muggles? Well let's just say they're not too fond of magic." At the inquiring look on Negi's face, he adds, "And I'd rather not talk about it."

"I see. Well, you seem to be in better shape! That potion Madam Pomfrey gave you seems to have done the job."

"Yes. Dreamless sleep is truly wonderful. Maybe I'm building a resistance and that's why I woke up early. Hmm…" The two descend into comfortable, bordering strained, silence. "So, Professor, those spells you used were really impressive. Are all Mages as strong as you?"

"Well, no, not really. You could say I'm a…special case. I've been called a prodigy and a genius for my large amount of power for my age and my incredible learning capacity. And in truth, I was really holding back on you. I only used simplified spells and even with the Fulgaratio Albicans I didn't use the full incantation." At his words he can see Harry tumbling into a depression. "But most of my fighting ability I acquired during a brief apprenticeship to a witch in Japan who knew my father. Well, that and a lot of hard work, and I have the scars to show for it," he says quickly.

This peaks Harry's interest enough to slip him out of the depression. "Really? So a witch taught you combat magic?"

"Well, she's called a witch but, really she _is_ a mage. She's a, uh, a vampire." Harry is shocked at the revelation. "She's a high-daylight-walker by the name of Evangeline A. K. McDowell."

"That name sounds familiar…" Harry tilts his head in thought, trying to remember one of Quirrel's stuttered lessons on famous vampires, and trying to recall anything Binns might have covered between Goblin Wars.

"Also know as The Dark Evangel." Negi braces himself for the inevitable outburst he was starting to come to expect from people when he told them about the Master.

Harry's mind finally catches up to everything Negi just said. He, understandably, freaks out. Just a bit.

"The high daylight walker Dark Evangel! The Puppet Master, The Undying Magi, The Nightmare Incarnate, She-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Named? The most powerful vampire since Dracula? And most powerful dark sorceress since Morgan Le Fay? _She_ taught you combat magic!"

Negi scratches the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "I haven't heard those last two before. She's really not all that bad. Master just likes scaring people...and takes what she wants...and she has a mean temper...and she throws around ice and darkness indiscriminately...and some of her puppets are really scary...and she aims to kill during training...and-"

"Professor? You're really not making a good argument for 'nice.' And did you just call her 'Master'?"

"Aha ha ha. Erm…kinda?" Harry sweatdrops. "She made me call her that during training, and she always cut loose more when I didn't call her it so… It kinda stuck," he shrugs.

They fall into a more uncomfortable silence than the last, both watching the sun slowly begin to set, the sky slowly being painted all the colors of the dawning night. "Professor?"

"Uhm?"

"Could you teach me how to use your kind of magic? Could you teach me how to be a mage?"

Negi is silent for several minutes, studiously avoiding Harry's eyes by staring at the fading rays of dusk.

"That's a difficult topic Harry. To my knowledge, most wizards can't become mages."

"But-"

"Bare with me, this is very complicated and will take some explaining." Harry clams up and nods, a serious look on his face normally not seen outside of combat and mystery solving. Negi takes another moment to compile his thoughts before beginning. "Let's start with the magic itself. Everyone, every being, is born with some amount of magical energy. Often, this isn't much more than a spark, barely noticeable and totally ignorable. Sometimes though, the spark is much more sizable, and the various wizarding Ministries have methods of detecting these larger sparks, as people with them are much more apt to become wizards and witches. Once they are given a wand, the story is pretty much over."

"Huh?"

"Right, some history. Magic and magic users have been around since as far back as humans can remember. There were some major schools of magic and thought that distinguished various types of mages, but there was really little difference between them. The classical mage: wielding a staff, spouting off long incantations, and generally moving mountains in feats of greatness, came first; but, somewhat over a millennia ago, the field of wand making was developed, and the modern wizards' wand was created. The quick-fire spells of witchcraft and wizardry would be nigh impossible for most witches and wizards without their wands. The lessened training requirements made it easier to locate and train up magically attuned youths. Then the wizards started gaining major ground over the mages, and the mage population slowly dwindled and secluded themselves from wizards."

Harry is enraptured by Negi's lecture. He briefly wonders if he'd 'like' history as much as he does if someone like Negi were to teach it.

"Now, a wizards magic is almost entirely internally drawn upon. Their wands are advanced focusing agents that mold their magical energies into their most efficient form possible to better utilize what they have. Because of the wand refocusing the energies, most wizards become entirely incapable of drawing on external magical energy to cast spells. Voldemort and Dumbledore are two of the only active wizards known to be able to do so, and they only dabble in the arts of magecraft, if at all. They could just be that powerful.

"It, generally, only takes a year of wand use for most young wizards and witches to become unable to draw on external magical energy." Negi doesn't miss the depressed aura that forms around Harry at this, or the resolve that begins to punch through it. "But that isn't always the case. Your use and quick recovery from the Deflexio spell earlier evidences this. You see, mages like myself have an internal magical store, but the brunt of our power comes from nature. One of a mages' first lessons is opening themselves to the energy of the world. Your rapid recovery from the Deflexio would indicate that you are indeed open to the energies of the world, and thus you might just be capable of learning magecraft. Actually, why don't we give it a try?"

Negi rummages through his pockets and hands Harry a lightning bolt tipped wand and pulls out his own star tipped wand. "A wand? Why couldn't I just use my own?"

"Because your wand is a wizard wand designed to focus and compress magical energy into an efficient form. This wand is a mage wand, designed to open the student up to the energies around them, so all the focus will be coming straight from you. Now watch. Practi Bigi Nari. Ardescat.*" With a twirl of the wand, a candle-sized flame sprouts from the end of the wand. "This is the first spell taught to mage student and the simplest of fire spells. Now, you try."

Harry nods and focuses on the lightning wand. He mimics Negi's twirl and incants, "Practi Bigi Nari. Ardescat." A spark flickers in the air over the wand.

"Very good! It can normally take students up to several months to get even that much. Though I suppose you do have a bit of an edge over them, ha ha! Give it another try."

"Practi Bigi Nari. Ardescat." There's not even a spark this time. Before Negi can say anything though, Harry agitatedly snaps his combat-honed focus on the wand tip and with a sharp twirl and flick incants "Practi Bigi Nari. Ardescat!" This time a fully functioning fireball shoots from the tip of the wand and out the, thankfully open, window.

"Excellent Harry! I've never seen any beginner perform the spell so fast!"

The congratulatory banter on the tip of Harry's tongue is cut off when Harry starts to wobble in bed.

Negi catches Harry as he starts falling and lays him back in the bed. "How could I have been so stupid," he berates himself. "You're in here for magic exhaustion and I have you trying out entirely new fields of magic! I'm sorry Harry, it was too early for you to start exerting yourself."

"I'm fine, I'm fine Professor. I'm just a little dizzy is all," Harry says woozily. Then his stomach makes its presence known. "And I could use some food."

"Ah, right. I'll have Dobby bring us some food. Something rich and energizing."

"Thank you professor."

"In private like this it's fine to call me Negi you know," Negi says with a reassuring smile.

Harry returns the trusting smile. "Sure thing Negi."

* * *

"I'm worried Albus."

Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore are sitting in the headmaster's office sharing a night cap. The topic of discussion? The two young men who make this story move, of course.

McGonagall takes a pull from her cup of firewhisky. "He may be young but he is no longer a mere child. Even I'm willing to admit that he can handle himself at this point. Especially after his demonstration this afternoon!"

Dumbledore, in contrast to his deputy head, only sips at his glass of Ogden's Old. "Yes it was rather impressive. Watching Negi throw powerful spells around without breaking a sweat, just like his father; that Harry managed to hold his own throughout was testament to his skill." Another, longer sip. "Their demonstration far exceeded all of my expectations of their abilities. Hopefully they will benefit each other in ways they don't expect."

"Stop trying to change the subject Albus," McGonagall says with a stern glare. "We should tell Harry what's going on. The more he knows the better prepared he will be and the more drive he will have to succeed."

Dumbledore sighs. He says wearily, in a tone that says he's said the same thing countless times before, "There is just too much risk Minerva. The connection has strengthened and Voldemort will eventually try using it against us. I'm going to need you to look out for Harry more than usual this year. I must keep my distance, for the greater good. Harry will manage, as is his way."

"Fine. What about what that…_woman_ said earlier? What can we expect?"

"I cannot rightly say. Cornelius is panicked, and like a cornered mouse is striking out wildly. The only assurance is that he will place his all behind disturbing us in the hopes of finding us at fault. We must be wary of the Ministry until Voldemort makes his move. Harry especially."

"I still say we should tell him," McGonagall mutters none too secretly into her cup of whisky before downing the rest.

Dumbledore just slaps on a winning smile and refills her glass. Then he takes a pastry from a tray and offers it to her. "Lemon cake?"

* * *

Practi Bigi Nari. Ardescat. – The basic of basic flame spells for starter mages.

And that's a wrap. Tell me what you think.


	10. Chapter 10

My sisters came down for my father's sixtieth birthday. It's been too hectic to get this done, but now it is, so enjoy and review!

* * *

Chapter 9: Build up to the start of classes

Yesterday, Harry Potter and Negi Springfield -both incredibly famous in their own circles- had a practice duel. While Harry found himself on his back suffering from magic exhaustion, Negi found himself a new student, in more ways than one.

Today, they are sitting in Negi's office eating breakfast. Just another day in the lives of the most interesting magical boys in the world.

"So how are you feeling Harry?"

"Much better Negi."

Oh, and as per the unofficial rules of men, now that the two have hit each other they're friends.

"I was thinking Harry," Negi says setting down his goblet of pumpkin juice. "I'd like to visit magical Britain. See the sights."

"Oh?" Harry says as he takes a bite out of a strawberry biscuit.

"Yes. I've been to London before, but only the civilian side. I've never had occasion to experience the magical sights. I would really like to visit before the start of school in a few days."

Harry finishes his biscuit and washes it down with the last of his own pumpkin juice. "Well, that might be a bit of a problem."

"How so?"

Harry sighs. "After Voldemort's revival last term, everyone who believes it has been on pins and needles," a note of bitter annoyance slips into his voice, "especially around me. It wasn't coincidence that when we went down to Hogsmeade there were three teachers with us; and that after we separated one was always in sight."

Negi blinks. Looking back, he did remember something like that; before the butterbeer anyway. "I see…"

"I'd love to take you on a tour of Diagon Alley -I'd love the freedom to go there myself- but no one here will let me. You could ask one of the others-"

"No, no, they're just as busy preparing for the students as I am." Negi enters his cute-when-he's-ten thinking pose. "Hmmm….Harry? How many secret exits do you know of from the school?"

Harry unnoticeably flinches and looks to the lower left; a tell-tale sign of a liar. "I showed you the four-"

"But there are more aren't there? With all you know of the school, you must know of an exit or two no one else does," Negi presses. He didn't catch the look, and if he did he doesn't know it as a sign of a lie. He's just childishly pushing forward with earnest hope, as usual.

Harry caves. "I…might have heard of something. But it's irrelevant; I can't leave the school. I'm too well known."

"I think I can do something about that." Negi gestures oddly at Harry and says, "_Mentior de Tempus_.*"

In a flash (I don't have the heart to say it was pink) Harry finds himself staring up at Negi from within the folds of his cousins clothes. Of course, he was doing this already -teen Negi was tall- but now Harry was a few _feet_ shorter instead of just a few inches, and his clothes could be used as a full bedspread instead of just wrapping around him twice. "This is…new. Color me impressed. But people will still be able to recognize me, and I'm not exactly equipped to be ten again," Harry says in a childish treble. To point he shakes his bangs out of his eyes to reveal his scar and flaps his right arm, the motion of the sheet of fabric reminiscent of a flag in the wind.

"Not to worry. I should have a few things that will fit you." Negi gets up and starts rummaging through a trunk. "By the way, why do you wear such oversized clothes?"

"They're…hand me downs, sorta," Harry says brokenly.

"Ah. More things you don't want to talk about?" Negi asks, eyebrow raised in question.

"Y-yeah," Harry says quietly. "Sorry; but, I don't even really talk about that stuff with my oldest friends so…"

"I understand. Everyone has their skeletons and all that I suppose." Negi hands Harry a stack of clothes and returns to rummaging.

Harry trades out his cousins clothes for the shorts, t-shirt, hoodie, and sneakers. He leaves his glasses stacked on his larger clothes, his eyesight having improved somewhat with his youthening. And because his glasses were too big for his shrunken head.

"Ah ha! Found it!" Negi turns back to Harry as he zips the coat closed. "Hm, not bad. You're right though, your scar really stands out. But this should cover that problem up." Negi proudly displays a compact he pulled from his things.

It's now Harry's turn to raise his eyebrow questioningly. "Make up? Why do you have make up?"

"Er, I'm holding it for a friend?" Negi tries lamely.

Harry's confusion instantly turns into a smirk. "It wouldn't happen to be a _girl_friend by any chance?" Negi starts stuttering and sputtering up a slew of incoherent negatives and Harry bursts out in laughter at the combination of his expression and reaction.

Negi starts laughing with him after a bit and the two calm down soon after. Harry stands still as Negi applies the make up-and stays that way until he finally gets it right, on the third try. Harry looks at himself in Negi's full body mirror. He pulls the hood of his jacket up and nods at the person he sees, discerning his reflection to be suitably innocuous.

"Ok, so I have a disguise and can provide an exit, but how do you propose we get to London quickly? And how do you plan to throw suspicion off of us while we're gone?"

Negi pulls two paper dolls out of his inner breast pocket. "I have our stand-ins right here; I just need to set them up. And…I hadn't really thought about how we'd get there." Negi says scratching the back of his neck.

Harry assumes the thinking pose Negi used moments ago. Negi can't help but wonder if he looks that cute when he does it at his proper age. "Hm, well, the Ministry regulates portkeys, so that's out. And flying would take too long," he muses. "Can you Apparate?"

"Apparate? I've never heard of that. It's not a mage skill, nor is it tied to anything I've researched for my classes."

"Great. So that's out." He notices the unasked question on Negi's face. "Apparating is basically wizard teleporting. It's the fastest way to travel long distances, if not the safest. We're not allowed to learn until we're 16; it's supposed to be riddled with dangers." Harry stops a beat as a vacant realization finally hits him, closely followed by his hand when he facepalms. "I just realized I can't even use my wand outside school grounds or the Ministry really will expel me. Crap."

"Use the practice wand I gave you then. You should be able to shoot a spell with it if you really try. And the Ministry shouldn't be able to trace it so that should prove useful."

Harry pulls out the lightning wand and points it at a blank wall, directing his focus into it as he did the night before. "Stupefy." A blast of red light strikes the wall and leaves a char mark. "Yep. That'll work."

The look on Negi's face is priceless. _"His first try and he gets a powerful shot out with a minimum of effort? What have I gotten myself into with this?"_ He shakes it off and says, "W-what other ways are there to travel to London magically then?"

Harry once again enters the heart thumpingly cute pose. "Well there's the Floo Network and the Knight Bus I guess."

"Huh? And Huh?" Negi asks dumbly.

"Are you sure you're the teacher? The Floo Network is pretty straightforward. Throw some floo powder in the fire, step in, speak the destination clearly, and if it's part of the network -most floo's in close proximity to wizards are- then one disorienting trip later and you've arrived. The Knight Bus is a wizarding bus that travels all over Great Britain and never crashes, even if you wish it would so the panic attack would stop. It's probably our safest bet."

There is a wordless pause. "Do wizards have _any_ comfortable methods of fast magical travel?"

"If they do they haven't told me about them. I can ask Hermione and Ron; one of them should know. What are those pieces of paper anyway?"

"_Finally, a question _I_ can answer__."_ Negi displays the paper dolls with a flourish. "These are called shikigami. They're eastern magic, and by writing our names on them I'll be able to use them as stand-ins for us."

Harry blinks at him, then looks down at himself. "You know what? I'll believe that. Now we just need a way to get off the grounds unnoticed so we can signal the Knight Bus for a ride. Hmm…" Harry takes the thinking pose again, still unknowing of its cuteness, while Negi pulls out a pen and gets started on the shikigami. After a few moments, Harry nods with finality. He turns to Negi with a serious expression, "Ok, I've got a plan, but there's a catch. Negi, I need you to swear to neither confiscate nor formally recognize or reprimand me for possessing any items you may see in the next 24 hours."

Negi frowns. "I can't in good conscience do that Harry." Harry pouts dejectedly on reflex, like the kid he currently is. Amazingly, it works. "But, on the other hand…I really do want to see Diagon Alley. I suppose…one day's ignorance couldn't hurt?" Negi asks himself.

Across the globe in Mahora Academy, Ayaka Yukihiro shoots up in bed, feeling her precious Negi Sensei being corrupted. She jumps to the obvious conclusion and rushes to Negi, Asuna, and Konoka's room. Once there, she barges in and finds a crouched, naked, and wet Asuna crouching over a wet, naked Negi, who is in turn lying on a wet, naked Konoka. She promptly passes out from a Naruto style nosebleed. The two girls and the brat they just got done giving a bath before tripping over each other sweatdrop.

Harry smiles broadly at Negi's acquiescence. "Glad to hear it. Dobby, I need you."

The elf appears with his standard 'pop.' "You is call- Wait, you is not Harry Potter!"

Harry pulls down his hood. "It's me Dobby. This is a disguise. Professor Springfield and I are taking a trip, and it would be dangerous for me to be recognized."

"Yous looks a little like the Great Harry Potter, and is true Harry Potter would be in danger if he were recognized outside school, but Dobby doesn't believe yous is Harry Potter."

"To protect me three years ago, you spent an entire summer intercepting my letters, framed me for underage magic, locked me out of Platform 9 ¾, and set a bludger on me. The clothing that freed you was an ink stained sock pressed in the pages of a diary with a hole in it that I tricked Lucius Malfoy into giving to you," Harry says entirely in an unbroken monotone.

As Harry talked, Dobby's ears and jaw steadily dropped. "You IS Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is sure that no one would recognize Harry Potter if Dobby couldn't!"

"Good to know Dobby. Now, I need you to get my map and cloak out of my trunk."

"Dobby will bring them Harry Potter Sir!" With another 'pop' he elf is gone again.

"You really should consider hiring him on Harry," Negi says, still scribbling carefully on the paper dol- shikigami.

"Yeah, maybe. How are those eastern magic stand-ins coming?"

"The shikigami are just about done. I'll activate them before we leave, I'm afraid Dobby would freak out if he saw two of us."

Harry is saved from answering when Dobby pops back in with a bundle of silvery fabric and a worn piece of parchment. "Here is Harry Potters cloak and map. Can Dobby do anything else for Harry Potter and Professor Springfield?"

"No, thank you Dobby. Just don't tell anyone what we're planning. We're leaving some golems behind disguised as us to avert suspicion. We'll see you later."

"Yes Harry Potter. Dobby's lips are closed. Dobby must get back to work now, before he is being missed." The elf 'pops' off for a final time.

"Now then Negi," Harry pulls his hood back up and unfolds the piece of blank parchment in his hand. He pulls out his wand and taps the parchment, grinning cheekily. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

* * *

Mentior de Tempus = Lie of Time. Since they never gave us the actual spell Eva taught Negi, I invented my own. Here it is, in English:

_Rise enshrouding mists of Avalon. Blanket mine form in a false image. Bind it true as Morgana's blood. Lie of Time._

The first two parts describe an illusion spell. The next part makes it 'true as Morgana's blood,' and refers to the original version of Morgan Le Fay, mostly the 'Le Fay' part, as the fey are masters of disguise and transformation. 'Lie of Time' clarifies the illusion, saying that the caster is lying about their 'time,' or age.

* * *

I know it sucks. I could go further with this, but that ending is just too good to ruin. And I'm beat.

Oh, does anyone know a good free English-Latin translator? I can get English-Greek, no problem, but Latin seems pretty rare.

Review!


	11. Chapter 11

I hit three Walt Disney World parks in three days. That's a new personal best!

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 10: Build up to the start of classes, part 2

Things went pretty quickly from there. Negi marveled at the invisibility cloak and Marauders Map with boyish delight while Harry gaped at the shikigami in astounded incredulity. They then snuck through the hallways under the cloak, Negi giving Harry a lift piggyback fashion, until they reached the statue of the humpbacked witch and Harry had to dismount to get in the passage. After a crawl (Negi) and walk (Harry) down the tunnel, they got in the same positions to sneak up and out of Honeydukes. They stayed that way until they were just outside the village.

Harry called the Knight Bus with a wave of his wand, and introduced himself to Stan and Charlie as James Springfield, Negi's kid brother, after the (currently) older boy recovered from the shock of the bus appearing. One sick-inducing, laws of physics and nature defying ride later, they were making passing introductions to Tom at the Leaky Cauldron before heading out back to the entrance of Diagon Alley.

Negi is suitably impressed at the hidden entrance to the magical market, but is even more impressed at the vibrant display of culture and magic in the incredibly overcrowded alleyway.

The first stop on their tour of the Alley was Olivander's. They entered on a whim really. Negi just walked right on in and Harry was forced to follow.

Before Harry can even begin to question Negi on why he entered the store when neither needed a wand, Negi rings the bell for service and calls into the darkness of the back, "Hello? Is anybody in?"

"Yes, dear boy, someone is in," a wheezy voice says from behind the two.

Both boys jump when the creepy voice comes from the door behind them. They turn to find a tall, wizened wizard in faded navy robes and hat standing in the shadow of the now closed door. "Ah, hello. You would be the proprietor, yes? Mr. Olivander?"

"I am. And you would be…" Just as Negi is preparing to answer Olivander continues, "…Negi Springfield, son of Nagi Springfield, the man known as the Thousand Master. Though you are older than I expected."

"You…know of my father?" Negi asks in shock.

"I met him …once. Overconfident, self-indulgent, loud, and flirtatious. Dumb, but very powerful." Negi sweatdrops at the wholly accurate description of his father. Olivander turns his attention to Harry, who is trying to act like he isn't there. "And you, Mr. Potter, seem to be younger than when we last met."

Harry just sighs resignedly and lowers his hood. "Good to see you again Sir. Sorry for the intrusion, I know how busy you must get the last few days of the summer break."

"No, no trouble at all," he says in a slow breath. "Now, might I ask, what brings you to my humble shop this day, when neither of you is in need of a wand?"

"Well, you see, um…" Negi stops to think for a moment. Why had he come here? "I was hoping to find some texts to better help my understanding of the differences between mages and wizards."

"And you decided to start with the wands, the basic magical mediums. Yes, I believe I can provide some insight for you both. If you could hand me your wands, Mr. Potter." Harry takes out his own wand and gives it to the old shopkeeper. "Thank you. And the other, most likely given to you by your Professor." Harry, bemused, hands over the lightning bolt wand as well.

Olivander takes up Harry's wand gingerly. "Yes, Holly and Phoenix feather, 13 inches, stout. A reliable wand for powerful spellcasting. And you have given it a fine polish since last years weighing." He lets forth a belch of emerald fire from Harry's wand, then trades it for the lightning-tipped wand. "I have not held one of these in some time. Welsh Hawthorne, tempered by magic, with a jade lightning amulet fused to the tip. Standard mage-fare, useful for beginners and less overwhelming spells." He swishes the wand and conjures a trio of songbirds. He cradles the wand gingerly and examines it in detail as he continues his lecture. "A mage wand is much more simplistic in design than a wizards, for its purpose is equally simplistic. It is used to open a person to the magical energies of the world, and then channel them in spellcasting; no more. All of the effort and work in a spell are performed by the mage alone." Here he takes Harry's wand into his other hand and presses the tip of the lightning tipped wand to it. "_Prior Incantato_.*" A sloped phantom shield rises from the tip of Harry's wand. "Though in comparison, a wizard's wand is far more complex than a mages. It refines a single spark of magic into its most efficient form, and then amplifies it until it is as great as a fireball. _Deletrius_.*" The phantom shield fades away.

"Wait, amplifies?" Negi asks. "I had no idea that wizard wands could do that!"

"You may stop drooling, Mr. Springfield. Most wizards and witches possess only moderate or minor magical sparks, and thus their wands amplify their talents to a level where they can face weaker mages on an even footing. Were a mage of your caliber to attempt to use most wizard wands, your power would overwhelm the properties of the wand and destroy it." Negi is disappointed at this, but accepts it well. Harry not so much. "Do not fret Mr. Potter. Your wand is one of the rare few with no amplifier." Harry perks up at that. "You have a naturally large magical core; a fireball to most of your peers sparks. While your fellows were learning to give just a spark of power to build into a spell, you started with fireballs of power, and merely needed to learn to moderate the amount you used in spells. Your wand will not be destroyed through the use of a truly severe spell, though I would advise you to acquire a proper staff should you pursue the path of the mage." He hands the two wands back to Harry. "Once you have built your physical and magical power, you will have no more trouble than normal learning magecraft."

Now he turns his vacant stare on Negi. "I believe the factor you were most perplexed about was Mr. Potter's openness to the energy of the world, Mr. Springfield? How even after five years his magic has not been permanently warped by his wand to make him insensitive to it?"

Completely overwhelmed by the perceptiveness of the old wand maker, Negi stutters out, "Y-yes, t-that was my primary interest."

"Mr. Potters continued openness to natural magic is, in part, due to his wands lack of an amplifier. Part of it is also that Mr. Potter appears to be fighting the conversion."

Harry decides to ask the pertinent question. "What? How could I be fighting something I didn't even know about?"

Olivander turns his head to Harry now. "Tell me Mr. Potter, how often did you experience occurrences of accidental magic in your youth? Five times? Ten? More? When you first came into my shop four years ago, you were fully open to the power of the world, and would have made an excellent candidate for the Meridiana Magic Academy. Your body has been absorbing ambient energy from the environment to keep you healthy throughout your life. Your body adapted this survival trait to keep you alive, and your own magic has been fighting your wand's warping of itself even in the safety of Hogwarts, because you subconsciously consider Hogwarts unsafe."

There is a profound silence in the shop as Harry and Olivander share a stare that Negi can't quite interpret.

Negi decides to try breaking the tension. "Er, thank you, Mr. Olivander. You've cleared up quite a few questions I had. You said you met my father once? Do you know why he was here?"

Olivander turns his glazed eyes on Negi, breaking his stare with Harry. "He was looking to procure a vault at Gringotts and stopped in on the way there in curiosity."

"Thank you. Come on Harry, we still have things to do," he says, putting a hand on the silent boys shoulder.

Harry sighs and pulls his hood up. "Thank you for your time," he says to Olivander, then he lets Negi lead him out of the store.

* * *

From Olivander's, Harry takes them directly to Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour. They pick a secluded table to sit down with their frozen conical delights.

They eat in silence until Negi can't take it anymore. "Ha-James?"

"I'm fine Negi. I just need some time to process all that." So saying, Harry goes back to his triple scoop rocky road with extra sprinkles he got half price from the clerk for being so abominably cute.

Negi pauses to stop his double-strawberry single-chunky-chocolate-fudge with a cherry on top that he got half price from the clerk for being so abominably hot from dripping. When he's sure his hand is safe, he asks, "Did your magic really act up that much when you were a child?"

Harry takes his time answering as he stems the tide of lactose approaching his hands before answering. "Yes. There were a few incidents over the years."

"Normally…accidental magic occurs as a response to danger and high emotions," Negi says slowly.

Harry can't keep the bite out of his response. "Is it a coincidence that Olivander says you're too old and you carry around clothes that belong to a ten year old?"

"Touche. I'll tell you if you tell me," Negi counters as quickly, if not as sharply.

Harry steadfastly returns to his ice cream and ignores Negi.

Negi sighs. _"I guess he really doesn't want to talk about it. Just what exactly has happened to him?"_ "Whenever you're ready to talk about it I'll listen. I really do want to help you Harry," Negi says earnestly.

Harry sighs. There's a lot of that happening recently. It needs to stop. "I know. When I'm ready, I know where to go." He finishes off his cone in three quick bites. "Now, where to next?"

Negi is glad to see that the sour moment appears to have passed. "I want to go by Gringotts; see if I can find anything about what my father was doing."

"Okay," Harry says jumping from his seat. "I needed to refill my money pouch anyway. I dumped it all into a charity fountain after my hearing the other week."

"Then let's go!" Negi takes three big bites to finish off his ice cream like Harry did. He clutches his head with a wince. "Ouch. Brain freeze."

Harry laughs.

* * *

Getting through the alley and into Gringotts was no problem. Then, as things do, complications arose.

"Crap." Harry says as he ducks behind Negi and pulls his hood tighter.

"James? What's wrong?"

"See the redhead talking to the goblin in the fez in the doorway? That's Bill Weasley, he's a curse breaker for Gringotts, and my best mates older brother. If he spots me we're busted!" Harry whisper-shouts to Negi.

Negi spots the man. Tall, red hair a brighter shade than his own, and dirt -no, just freckles- all over his face. He's occupying the only goblin not otherwise occupied by patrons.

"We'll just get in a far line and avoid him completely," Negi whispers back. Harry nods and makes sure to keep his taller friend between him and the other redhead as they walk across the vast entrance hall of Gringotts to the shortest wait line, behind two chattering witches and a frazzled wizard talking to a goblin teller with a pronounced overbite.

"What! That's robbery! Those gems are worth twice, even three times that amount!" the wizard yells incredulously at the goblin.

"That is the standard exchange rate for gems of that size and clarity," the goblin responds in a businesslike uncaring tone. "Take it or leave it."

The wizard grabs the bag of coins next to the pile of gems and stomps off, all the while grumbling about money grubbing goblins.

The two witches step up. "Just down to the depths with us. Vaults 234 and 647."

The goblins sticks out his gnarly hand. "Keys."

"Of course." The first witch hands over her key and her friend fumbles hers from her pocket, then drops it. It clatters on the tile and comes to a rest at Harry's feet, where he picks it up.

Harry steps forward and holds the key out to her. "Here, you dropped this."

There is an instant for which all of time stops. This is the instance in which a loli or shota of epic proportions comes into being. This happened when Takamichi Nanoha climbed out of bed. When Fate Testarossa blushed. When Negi Springfield stood before Class 2-A giving his introduction. When Sakura Kinomoto smiled. And when a youthened Harry Potter grinned at a witch while chivalrously returning her dropped key. From this brief flash of eternity Harry's path in life is forever changed, and his destiny is forever intertwined with legions of overly zealous, incredibly beautiful girls. This kid just cannot catch a break.

Internally the aged spinster of a witch and her similarly aged friend squeed at the heart melting adorability of the child offering her back her key. Both would have made that squee external as well had they been fifty years younger, and not proper English ladies. Instead they settled for mutual girlish blushes while daintily accepting the key. They left trailing a new goblin, their chattering now turned towards boys far too young for them.

"Next."

Negi and Harry step up to the podium. "Hello. I would like to ascertain the value of any holdings I might have," Negi says.

"Name," the goblin asks in a businesslike monotone.

"Springfield, Negi. Son of Nagi Springfield."

The goblin scribbles on a piece of parchment, then hands it to Negi. "Take this to Fangsnout. He's head of the Inheritance Determining Department."

Negi takes the parchment. "Thank you. Ah, who is Fangsnout?"

The goblin points across the hall…to the goblin still talking to Bill Weasley. Negi and Harry share a glance reminiscent of Harry's original 'Crap.'

They walk over to the talking man and goblin. "…and then this muggle worker comes in out of nowhere and steps on the trigger stone. I barely got the anti-apparition ward down before we all got buried in sand. We're gonna need to close the site and get an excavation team in there soon, or the muggles will uncover the chamber, _again_, and we'll get stuck with even more paper work."

The goblin grunts in agreement, but is interrupted by Negi before he can respond properly to Bill. "Excuse me? I was told to talk to Fangsnout about determining my holdings?"

The two Gringotts employees turn to look at the mis-aged duo. "Who sent you?" the goblin rasps out.

"Uh…"

"His nameplate said Hangtooth. The third from the far wall, with the overbite. He gave us a note," Harry says brightly from his spot huddled in his hoodie on the far side of Negi from Bill.

Fangsnout glowers impressively at Harry, who just stares back at him with an innocent boyish, bright-eyed stare.

He turns to Bill and says, "We'll finish later," then back to his two new patrons. "Follow me."

Fangsnout takes them to a door with a window in it on the back wall. He opens the door and steps in then closes it again. There's some muffled shuffling, and the next second he's framed in the window above their heads staring down at Negi.

He sticks his hand through the base of the window towards Negi. "Note."

Negi hands over the scrap of parchment and Fangsnout disappears from view. He returns a few minutes later with a scroll.

"Hand."

"Huh?"

"Your hand, Sir," Fangsnout repeats in a businesslike tired tone.

Negi blinks at Fangsnout and holds out his hand. The goblins own hand strikes out lightning fast and one of his claw like nails spears Negi's finger. Both hands fly back to their owners, Negi's going to his mouth to suck on his bleeding digit while Fangsnout's goes up in front of his face to examine the single scarlet drop dangling from the tip of his claw.

"What was that for!" Harry shouts at the goblin.

Fangsnout taps the drop of blood onto the scroll and is quiet for a moment. "It appears that you _are_ a first generation descendant of Nagi Springfield." The goblin unrolls the scroll. "Mr. Nagi Springfield opened an account with Gringotts 17 years ago. He has one medium security vault, number 576, with a customized lock."

Negi is practically jumping with joy. If it weren't for Harry grabbing onto him, he would be. "I would like to visit the vault, if that's possible."

"I will have Nubtalon take you. Is there anything else?" he says in a businesslike dull tone.

"Yes," Harry pipes in, stepping in front of Negi now. "I would like to visit my vault. Number 736, here's the key."

"Is that so?" Fangsnout asks in a businesslike tone of obvious disbelief. These guys have a lot of businesslike tones huh?

Harry rubs his sleeve over his forehead under his bangs, and holds them back to show Fangsnout the scar on his forehead and tan smudge on his wrist.

Fangsnout glances at Harry, then scrutinizes the key. Finally, he nods. "Understood. Gringotts prides itself on its clients' privacy. Nubtalon will take you to your vault as well."

"Come on 'big brother,'" Harry says, pulling his hood down lower over his face, "the faster we get down there the faster we get back up, and the sooner we can get some lunch."

Harry leads Negi to a rough-hewn corner of the bank where they are met by a short-nailed goblin who introduces himself as Nubtalon. They hop in the nearest cart and they're off.

When they stop Harry has to pry Negi's hands off the edge to get him out of the cart and up to the door of the vault.

"Vault number 576. Medium security, custom lock," Nubtalon says, waving to the appropriately numbered vault.

Negi steps up to the vault and runs his hand over an inscription. "What's that?" Harry asks.

"It's Ancient Greek. It says, 'Basic Academy unlocking spell.' I think it's the instructions for opening the door." Negi takes his staff off his back and braces with the curved end facing the door. "_Resero Panderque_*" Negi twists his staff a quarter turn clockwise as he says it.

There is a loud click and the door opens on several man-high stacks of gold silver and bronze. Negi gapes in surprise at the sheer volume of rare metals he now has access to. There is nothing else in the room.

"This is…all mine?" Negi asks stupidly of no one.

Harry steps up and takes a closer look at the piles of coins. "Appears so. The bronze ones are Knuts, the silver Sickles, and the gold Galleons. Twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. A few handfuls of Galleons should cover anything we do today."

"Yeah, ok." Negi says weakly, then pockets a few handfuls of galleons. When he's done and everyone's out of the vault, it closes on its own with a locking click..

"Next stop, vault 736."

"Do we have to take the cart?" Negi asks apprehensively.

"It gets easier," Harry says comfortingly.

Negi perks up hopefully. "Really?"

"No. It gets worse the deeper you go." Negi whimpers pitifully, but gets in the cart.

After another shorter, but equally stomach churning ride down deeper into the depths they come to Harry's vault. Negi was amazed at his vault. When he sees Harry's…

"Th-th-tha-th-tha-that…is…a _lot_ of money."

He couldn't decide whether he wanted to ask Harry for a loan, or to just jump in and start swimming.

"Yeah, even among the old money vaults this one's still impressive," Nubtalon says distractedly while appraising the hills of precious metal with his eyes. "And this is just the coins, the artifacts have their own vault in higher security."

"Really? Those would be interesting to examine," Negi says dazedly, still mesmerized by the shining mounds of wealth before him.

Realizing he said something he shouldn't have, Nubtalon quickly amends his statement. "Can't. Access is only to the Lord Potter, and the boy is too young as of yet to accept the moniker."

"I see," Negi mutters, still enraptured by all the shiny.

"I'm done," Harry say, stepping out of his vault with a bag of coins he slips under his jacket. "Let's go."

With the closing of the door, the two observers are knocked out of their trances. "You know Harry, one corner of your vault would be enough to commission and complete a top notch warded dwelling. In a week. Payrolling Dwarven master stone smiths," Negi says.

Nubtalon nods agreement. "Though goblins would do better work, for a nominal fee."

"I know. I just don't need one yet," Harry says with a shrug, climbing into the cart. "Now let's get out of here and get some lunch."

* * *

_Prior Incantato_. A spell that forces a wand to conjure the ghost of the last spell it cast.

_Deletrius_. 'Prior Incantato' counter. Vanishes the ghost of the spell.

_Resero Panderque_ = Unlock and open. Basic mage spell for opening locked doors. So simple a monkey could do it…if the monkey were trained in magecraft. Since few mages know of Gringotts, and none of them know of Nagi's vault, there's little to no chance of anyone knowing the right spell or breaking in.

* * *

Long one this time. More action than last time, but only just. Tell me what you think. I insist. A lot of long reviews will get the next chapter out faster.

Special thanks to fearforesta, for telling me about The Latin Lexicon. It's a great English-Latin translator, and I'd be lost without it. Well, not really, but the wiktionary only goes s far.


	12. Chapter 12

I can't believe how long this is taking me! I started the idea for these chapters as less than a half a page of thoughts that shouldn't have taken more than a small chapter to cover. And now it's into the third chapter of it! I have really got to finish this up so I can get back to other projects.

Without further ado: the end of the trip to Diagon Alley, and the last chapter before the start of term.

* * *

Chapter 11: Build up to the start of classes 3

After another spine wrenching ride back to the surface, Negi was more than happy to leave Gringotts for the comfortable darkness of the Leaky Cauldron. They ate their lunch in a quiet corner, partaking of some people watching for entertainment. Harry pointed out various people he knew, from students to adults and friends to foes.

When they were done eating they returned to braving the ever thickening throngs in Diagon Alley. They spent a little time perusing robes in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. They meandered between the cages of Eyelops Owl Emporium and the Magical Menagerie, and wandered up and down the aisles of the apothecary, the cauldron shop, and the junk shop. Aside from a packet of owl treats, an inactive set of famous wizard cards, matching top hats, and an assortment of rare potion ingredients nothing interesting happened there.

Harry gave Negi a tour of Quality Quidditch Supplies and Negi introduced Harry to his antiquing hobby. Harry needed quite a bit of effort to urge Negi to leave Flourish and Blotts, though he didn't put as much of a fight into getting him out of Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. They still ended up with a stack of books and tricks as high as Harry (currently) was.

They eventually decided to call it a day and retraced their steps back to the school. A wild ride on the Knight Bus -that had Negi pining for the carts of Gringotts and vowing to develop safer methods of long distance travel so he'd never have to do it the wizard way again- found the two hiking invisibly through Hogsmead as pubs and diners got filled for dinner, and then crawling through the tunnel from Honeydukes to Hogwarts. From there it was a simple matter of another invisible jaunt back to Negi's office, relieving their doubles, restoring Harry to normal, and stashing their purchases, and they were free to go down to dinner with none the wiser.

More people than usual met in the Kitchens for dinner that night. Dumbledore, Snape, Filch, and Hagrid were absent, as usual, leaving Harry, Negi, and Flitwick as the only males at the table. McGonagall, Sprout, Pomfrey, Pince, Sinistra, Vector, and Trelawney were present, also as usual.

Four others joined the throng that night, all witches themselves: Rolanda Hooch the flying coach, Bathsheda Babbling the Ancient Runes professor, the Muggle Studies professor Charity Burbage, and Hagrid's regular substitute for Care of Magical Creatures Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank.

Negi took a seat near the center of the group, and was quickly surrounded by the witches. Mrs. Norris even found her way into Negi's lap (as usual) once he sat down. Harry took a seat beside professor Flitwick at the far end of the group, both united in their unending amusement at how the females acted around the apparently ignorant Negi. Even the elf maids fought over the right to serve him! The two males were even jokingly writing a pamphlet on charming women based on their observations of Negi in action. Even in his dueling heyday Flitwick couldn't draw a crowd like the young mage!

"Evening Sir," Harry greets his height-impaired tablemate.

"Good evening Mr. Potter," Flitwick chirps back. "How was your day?"

"It was fine. Professor Springfield is a fast study. He knows Hogwarts better than most, and could find his way as well as the best," as he says it Harry accepts a platter of steak and potatoes from one of the house elves and starts eating.

"Splendid, splendid. The headmaster chose right when he picked you for the guide. Though it was a shame you had to cut your summer-"

"Pfft. What summer? There really wasn't all that much to do at 'that place' but worry and clean. If it were up to me I wouldn't leave Hogwarts during break at all anyways." Seeing the sympathetic look building in his professor's eyes, Harry quickly rallies to reassure him. "Being here doing something was much more interesting. So, really, it's fine."

Harry takes the silence following his statement as a good sign and lets the topic die. The two continue eating in silence, watching the women make fools of themselves in front of Negi.

"Oh! I just remembered," Flitwick says halfway through dinner. "I have finished examining the sword you asked me to look at."

That gets Harry's attention. He'd almost forgotten about the blade with how busy he'd been. "Really? So how dangerous is it?"

"Very, to everyone but you," he assures him. "Miss Tonks was correct, the sword does hold to the right of the victor. It is similar in make to Godrick Gryffindor's sword: enchanted goblin steel, designed to eat through magic. Incredibly sharp, and guaranteed to stay that way. The flames appear to be some type of Fiendfyre* designed to boost the cutting power. Someone wielding that sword properly would only be defeated by greater skill, cunning, and luck. It would be wise for you to avail yourself of its use."

"You really think so?" Harry asks.

"Oh yes," Flitwick assures him with a knowing nod. "One never knows when a trump card might come in handy. Having a wand up your sleeve and all that*. You can collect it from my office after dinner."

"Thank you, I will." He refocuses on Negi in time to catch and write down a successful compliment that made one of the witches huddled around him blush scarlet. Harry remains silent the rest of the meal, thinking about the sword and how it might affect his future battles.

* * *

Harry follows Flitwick to his office after dinner in companionable silence. Once there he picks up the sword from Flitwicks desk, but he notices something different about the scabbard and belt. "Sir? These aren't the belt and sheath I had before."

"Ah yes. Items conjured by magic are not designed to last Mr. Potter," Flitwick says in a lecturing tone, "but you will be learning more about that in the coming year. That intriguing house elf that you released from Lucius Malfoy was generous enough to track down a scabbard and belt for me when he learned the sword was yours."

Harry grins weakly at the mention of Dobby. "I'll have to thank him the next time I see him." Harry wraps the belt around the sheathe and starts for the door. "Well, good night Sir," he calls over his shoulder.

"Good night Mr. Potter," the diminutive professor says to Harry's retreating back.

* * *

As Harry is making his way to the Gryffindor Tower he unexpectedly runs into Negi. It's unexpected because Harry is in an empty corridor on the fifth floor, and Negi is floating outside a window on his staff.

"Hello Harry," he says. "Care to join me? It's beautiful out tonight."

Harry shrugs. He had planned to ask Negi to go flying tomorrow, but now was as good as ever. "Sure. Let me get my broom."

"Already covered." Negi pulls Harry's Firebolt off his back from the spot that usually held his staff. He passes it through the window to the surprised boy-who-lived.

"How-"

"I've been wanting to fly with you ever since we visited the Quidditch pitch last week, but it kept getting pushed back by everything else. I went up to your dormitory after dinner and got your broom from your trunk, and then I sat out here where I knew you'd pass by and waited."

Harry feels a spark of pride. He taught Negi the layout of the castle, and the young teacher had been able use that knowledge to determine Harry's path from Flitwick's office to the one place he'd have to pass to reach Gryffindor tower. Then the rest of what he said sunk in. "How long have you been waiting out there?"

Negi shakes his head in the negative. "Not long. Well, are you coming or not?"

Harry catches Negi's infectious smile. He releases his broom and it floats at the ready. Negi blinks in surprise. _"That's not supposed to happen on its own."_ Harry unfurls the belt from around his sword and swings it onto his shoulder, adjusting straps until it settles tightly but comfortably on his frame. A few minutes later the two are soaring leisurely above the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Over Hagrid's cabin, Negi asks, "So your sword was given the all clear then?"

"Yes," Harry says, swerving left to give clearance to a passing owl. "It's no danger to me, just everybody else. So long as I'm careful with it at least."

"That's good." They fly on in silence for a little bit. "Do you know anything about swordsmanship Harry?"

"Not really, no. I've only ever used a sword twice before, and both times I won through luck and survived because I wasn't alone."

"Would you like to learn?"

"What?"

"My specialty is basic magic and to a lesser extent combat magic, but I'm also highly trained in hand-to-hand martial arts and I'm a self taught swordsman. I could teach you self defense and swordsmanship. And if you're still sure, I could start you on the path of magecraft."

Harry stares at Negi in shock. Then he does something he hasn't done since Sirius offered him a home and absolute freedom from the Dursleys. He smiles, genuinely, and with all his heart. "I'd like that."

Negi, seeing this, returns it in full. "I'm glad. You can join me for my morning workout if you want. I normally do it on the near shore of the lake to the castle."

"You could find your way out of the castle and to the lake but you couldn't find your way from your office to the Great Hall?" Harry asks dubiously.

Negi scratches his head. "I kinda took a shortcut. I would fly out my window and around to the lake, then walk to the front doors."

"That…is actually a rather good idea." They fly on in amicable silence until they reach the Quidditch pitch. "Sooo… Just how fast can that stick of yours go?"

"Pretty fast. Yours?" Negi responds, not even trying to hide his challenging smirk.

"Fastest commercial broom on the market. 0 to 150 miles in ten seconds. Favorite of pro-league players," Harry boasts, nothing but pride in his tone.

"A lap around the grounds?"

"Why stop at one?"

The two blast off for what will become their most exhilarating flight of the year. They zoom over, under, and around everything in their path, dipping into their respective bags of tricks to one up the other move for move.

They enjoy it while they can. The students arrive in two days.

* * *

*Fiendfyre – magical fire that is dangerous as sin in large or small quantities. The fire that coats the sword isn't true Fiendfyre though, just very similar.

*A wand up your sleeve – An ace in the hole or similar analogy. If someone has a better one, please tell me. I'll give you a cookie!

There hasn't been enough funny these last few chapters, and I need a pick me up. So here's an omake, for everyone's viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

* * *

OMAKE

Hermione's Pactio Practice.

"So, how does this work?" Hermione asks.

"You just hold the card and say Adeat," Harry answers. "Try it."

Hermione holds the card aloft skeptically and says, "Adeat."

In her hands appears a large yellow wiffle bat. At its base is a plaque with this inscription: "_This Baka Bat property of Hermione Jane Granger."_

"A bat?" Ron laughs. "What the hell use is a foam bat?"

Hermione turns on her heel and with a shout of "BAKA!" brings the bat down on Ron's head. He sinks a good foot into the ground.

She brings the bat to rest on her shoulder with a huff as she puts her other hand on her hip. "Maybe now you'll watch what you say around other people."

Omake inspired by Shadow Crystal Mage's 'Uzumaki Harry.' Go read it, it is awesome!


	13. Chapter 13

Finally done! I know it's been a while, and here's my explanation:

2011 was crap for me. Every time I thought I was close to getting a job, I lost it. Every time I thought things were looking up, one of our cars broke down, or one of us broke down. I must have been at a hospital or doctors office for one thing or another every third day. On top of all that, I lost my grip on the story. I looked at this chapter and just hated how it was turning out and had to go back and revise everything for the next few chapters, and a lot of my plans for after that.

I'm posting this now to show that I am still working on it. I never stopped working on it; I just have a short attention span and am easily sidetracked by other ideas. And life. Anyway, I'm hoping to get out a chapter a month or so, but I'm making no promises.

So that's everything. Now You Know. Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 12: The Start of Term

August 30

The Morning after Harry and Negi's trip to Diagon Alley Harry finds himself standing on the shore of the lake in the early morning light watching Negi move through a complicated martial arts routine. Watching him go through his paces, wearing just a pair of black pants that let Harry see the byplay of the muscles and scars across his arms and torso, The-Boy-Who-Lived found himself very glad that their duel had been an entirely magical one.

With a final complex series of strikes and steps, Negi comes out of his stance and bows respectfully to an invisible opponent. He starts at Harry's applause, then grins sheepishly at the attention.

"Good morning Harry."

"Good morning Negi."

With the pleasantries aside, they move on to business. Negi starts things off in the fashion he has become accustomed: as direct as a canon ball.

"Hit me."

Harry blinks at Negi. Then he blinks again. "Huh?"

"Hit me," Negi repeats. "As hard as you can. Give me everything you've got."

Harry just stares at him. When his serious expression doesn't waver in the slightest, Harry finally nods. He takes a moment to review everything that he knows about punching…which isn't much more than memories of _being_ punched. So he does what everyone in over their head with no idea how to proceed does at such a time: wings it.

He steps into Negi and throws a right straight at his solar plexus, putting as much of his negligible weight behind it as possible.

Negi stands there staring down at the fist on his chest, and the bemused boy in the unbalanced stance it's attached to. "We have a _lot_ of work to do."

And work they did. After two laps around the very large lake and 200 assorted stretches, sit-ups, squats, and push-ups, Harry was seriously reconsidering asking Negi to teach him magecraft. How could he have known that Negi's definition of 'in-shape' was several tiers above any normal humans? Negi said something about most magic users being too reliant on their magic and neglecting their bodies so balancing both would give him an edge, but Harry was honestly too wiped to remember it correctly.

Once Harry wound down from the physical workout, the magical one began. Negi had Harry perform the Ardescat spell until he could moderate the power input to consistently achieve the simple candle sized flame the spell called for. It was fun -for Negi- to guess whether or not an explosive conflagration or sizzling spark would pop up as Harry tried to regulate his power flow without collapsing under his own weight in exhaustion.

They call it a day at lunch and spend the rest of afternoon shooting the breeze. Negi even gives Harry a display of his combat strengths, namely his Chinese martial arts and delayed spells. _Silent_ delayed spells that strike Harry speechless. Temporarily.

"You can cast spells that powerful silently with that little effort?" Harry says in awe. "And delay their release? I've never even heard of that!"

"Yes, well, it is pretty impressive, isn't it?" Negi says with a mildly embarrassed grin at the praise. "It was difficult to learn silent casting, and even more so delayed spells—at first—but practice makes perfect as they say. Actually, according to Remus the sixth years start learning silent casting in the first week."

Harry perks up at this. "Really? That'll be useful. Not tipping people off to what you're casting would be a great help in a fight…" he trails off, remembering where a silent spell would have saved him endless trouble in his many adventures.

"It's not like you couldn't learn now. The theory behind silent casting is very simple," Negi says, slipping into lecture mode. Harry finds that he sounds just like Hermione and Remus do when they begin academic explanations. "It's all about concentration and mental power. You simply think of the spell and perform the motions without actually saying the incantation. Not everyone can do it of course, especially in the heat of combat, but those who can number among the best. I would advise starting with familiar and simple spells first to get a feel for it."

Harry ponders Negi's words for a moment, staring at his wand in thought. Then he sprouts a thin-lipped serious face, points his wand at a rock at his feet, and sends his wrist through one of the first wand motions he ever learned. With a swish and a flick the rock miraculously…stays exactly where it is.

Negi chuckles weakly. "I guess it's not really as easy as it looks."

* * *

August 31

Having told Negi what Professor Flitwick said about his sword the other night, Negi asked Harry to bring it the next morning. That's when the problems started.

Upon drawing the sword from its scabbard to show Negi, it lights up in its dark flames. "OK, that is rather impressive," Negi says. "Though it is a bit big for you; but, we'll work on that. It would probably be better to turn off the flames while training."

"We might have a problem there. I…don't know how to turn it off," Harry says nervously with a sweatdrop forming behind his head.

"Yeah…that would be a problem wouldn't it?" Negi murmurs as his own sweatdrop appears.

They spend the next hour testing the sword. Pumping magic into it seems to strengthen the flames proportionately, while cutting the flow barely dims the flames. Willing the flames away is only mildly effective, but shows promise. They move on after Negi gets burnt trying to hold the word, figuring they can work on the sword later when Harry's physical conditioning and skill with a blade have improve. Negi still needs to find some suitable practice swords anyway.

After a lighter workout than the previous day and a final review of the Ardescat spell, Negi teaches Harry two more simple spells: the most basic wind spell, Venti, and basic levitation spell, Se Invelitant. These two spells are much easier for Harry to get the hang of. By lunch he is sending leaves, sticks, and at one point a sunbathing grindylow flying across the grounds.

When they finally break for lunch, Harry asks, "So, are you ready for classes to start tomorrow?"

Negi swallows his mouthful of roast beef on rye. "I should be asking you that; I'm the teacher after all. How is your summer work coming along?"

"All done. Having the library and a bunch of teachers around these last two weeks has been surprisingly helpful," Harry says sardonically. "I've already handed it all in."

"I'm glad to hear it. And yes, I'm ready. I've never had to plan around so many people though." This is a lie, of course, but Negi wanted to believe that he'd learned how to fib fairly well, at least with people who didn't know him very well yet. Sure, he had seven years to plan around, but he was only teaching about 300 students. Even with the only three years covered at Mahora Girls Middle Negi was still teaching a spread of 450 students there. Though teaching boys—many actually older than his real age—would definitely be a new experience. "It'll be an interesting trial run."

"Trial run? Oh, right. Internship. And the curse will make sure of that," Harry mumbles at the end.

"Curse? What curse?" The hint of worry in Negi's voice is apparent even to the dense Harry. And why shouldn't he be worried? Nobody likes curses. Oh, if Harry only knew…"Oh wait, you mentioned that before. Can you tell me more about it?"

Harry shrugs. "The position is cursed. There hasn't been a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to last for two consecutive terms for about 50 years now."

"Um…really?" Negi swallows nervously. "What happened to them all?"

"Well, I can only speak for the last four, but the general outcome is that they move on to other work or are forced to leave for…medical reasons," Harry hedges.

"What _kind_ of medical reasons?" Negi presses.

"Um…death, brain damage, Lycanthropy—though that last was an existing condition—and the last one was tortured for a year and his stand-in had his soul sucked out," Harry says quickly.

The silence that follows is as far from comfortable as it can be without being painful. Negi seems deeply lost in thoughts that Harry couldn't hope to ponder, and Harry is desperately casting about for something to break up the sour mood he created. As it drags on into its third minute, Harry cracks. "So, um, maybe we should go clean up?"

Negi starts and quickly snaps out of his mood. "Uh, yes. Yes, you're right. We still have some preparing to do before everyone arrives."

"Yeah." Harry breathes a mental sigh. Watching Negi brood had just felt so...wrong. "I still have to somehow convince Professor McGonagall let me go to meet my friends at the station tomorrow morning"

"Good luck with that," Negi chuckles. Even his short association with the strict Transfiguration professor had taught him how stubborn she could be, especially when student—particularly Harry's—safety was at risk.

* * *

September 1

Harry is re-reading—though it would be more apt to say re-re-rereading—a letter Errol delivered to him at breakfast in the back of a carriage on its way to Hogsmeade Station. It is from Hermione, as most of his letters usually are since she always needled Ron about his handwriting until he told her to just write it herself, and for some reason the letter just pissed him off almost as much as all of the other even vaguer letters he'd received from his friends over the summer had.

_Dear Harry,_

_Everything's fine here. Ron and the twins say 'Hi.' Mrs. Weasley is still Hell bent on keeping us too busy with cleaning to do much else. I hope you're enjoying yourself and making good use of your time. You did finish your homework didn't you? Ron still hasn't._

_We just got our school letters in and you won't believe it. Ron and I are Prefects! Well, you probably assumed I would be, of course, but how Ron did it is beyond me. What is Dumbledore thinking? If I didn't know better I'd agree with the twins, Ron, and the others that he really has gone mad. Mrs. Weasley is ecstatic though._

_Will you meet us at the station in Hogsmeade? It wouldn't be practical to come all the way back to London to ride the train when you're already there, but could you meet us at the coaches at least?_

_See you soon,_

_Hermione and Ron_

_P.s. Snuffles says 'Hi' too._

Hermione was right, Harry couldn't believe it. Ron made Prefect. _Ron_ made Prefect. Ron, the laziest guy in Gryffindor House, the greatest underachiever of his year, the person most likely to abuse his power besides Malfoy, got made Prefect while he, Harry The-Boy-Who-Bloody-Lived Potter, savior of the wizarding world, four time defeater of Lord Voldemort, Triwizard Champion, and—if he were one to brag—bonafide Hero got squat. He agreed with the others, Dumbledore had lost it.

Shaking himself out of his admittedly jealous brooding, Harry takes a deep breath, holds it for a ten count, and exhales slowly in an attempt to calm down. A few repetitions later he feels it start working.

His chain of thought is broken when the carriage halts abruptly. A familiar train whistle causes him to look up out the window to see the brilliant red and black engine of the Hogwart's Express slowly rolling into the station. He hops out of the carriage with a grin as the platform quickly fills with a writhing mass of black robes full of excited teenagers.

He leans against his coach and watches the students disembark from the train, the older students moving as one to the carriages in groups of friends, saying hi to familiar faces as they go by to their own carriages.

Harry's eyes constantly scan the crowd for his friends. He spots the diminutive features of Professor Grubbly Plank leading the smallest children, the first years, away from the throng on the path to the lake, again feeling a stab of worry for his missing friend and teacher. None of the teachers in the Order had been able or willing to give him any new information about Hagrid's mission whenever he asked.

A shout of "Harry!" draws him from his thoughts. He quickly hones in on Hermione in the middle of the approaching crowd, she and Ron rushing up with Ginny, followed by a short girl with light blonde hair and large glasses. She's holding what looks like Pigwidgeon's cage, which is confirmed when she catches up to Ron and passes the cage to the gangly redhead, who promptly fumbles it.

The cage crashes and the little bird zooms out, twittering madly like he always does. The little puffball zips around in his stupidly hyperactive way, and unfortunately his course leads him straight to the carriages, on a collision course with one of the Thestrals. Harry barely manages to catch the little annoyance before it gets eaten, his finely honed Seeker reflexes allowing him to snatch the pigmy owl almost literally from the jaws of death. He's not quite fast enough, however, as he finds that the jaws of the Thestral that sought to make a snack out of Pigwidgeon now firmly clamped onto the hanging sleeve of his robe.

He tries tugging his robe out of the beast's mouth. It doesn't work. "Oi, you, leggo," he orders the draconic horse, staring it straight in the eye. It tries staring him down, futilely, and relents its hold on his sleeve only when his friends run up to him. Near-dark monster that it was, it knew that five young wizards were more trouble than its snack warranted.

Ron is the first to reach Harry. "Thanks mate. Wicked catch," Ron pants out. "Stupid bird," he grumbles, taking his owl from his best friend. He shoves Pig back into his cage where the pest returns to flying around, twittering madly once again.

"No problem," harry grins. "Now hop in, Dobby said the elves were gonna go the extra mile this year for the feast." Ron needs no further prompting and scampers into the carriage.

Ginny quickly follows her brother after a smiling "Hi Harry".

As soon as the redheads are out of the way, Harry finds himself caught in a crushing hug from his frizzy brunette friend. "You made it! How have you been? Remus and Padfoot told us some, but-"

Harry finds it prudent to cut her off before she really builds up a head of steam. "Calm down Hermione! I'm fine. I'll tell you everything later, promise."

Ginny pokes her head out of the carriage to say, "You heard him Hermione; he's fine. Now hurry up. I didn't have anything on the train and I'm so hungry I think I could eat half of Ron's dinner!"

"Oi!" the brunt of the joke indignantly shouts from further inside the carriage.

The other three Gryffindors laugh and Hermione finally climbs into the carriage. As Harry is following, a soft voice behind him asks, "You can see them too?"

Harry stops and turns to the new girl. She is shorter than him, probably Ginny's height, and likely in her year as well. She has scraggly, waist length, dirty blonde hair and large silver-grey eyes. His eyes are drawn to the bottle cap necklace around her neck and wand perched behind her left ear. For a moment, he wonders if she's related to Dumbledore. "See them?" he asks, then it hits him. "You mean the Thestrals. You can see them?"

"Yes. Ever since first year," she says in a soft, almost dreamy way. Harry nods solemnly in acknowledgment. He knows what it means to be able to see the Thestrals.

He sticks out his hand to offer her a lift into the carriage. "I'm Harry Potter, obviously," at this he shakes his head a bit to show a flash of his scar, "fifth year Gryffindor. And you are?"

She stares blankly at his inviting smile for a few seconds before accepting the hand with a small blush that is lost in the shadows of dusk. "Luna. Luna Lovegood, fourth year Ravenclaw."

Harry helps her into the carriage and then follows after her. In the dark of the carriage, Harry easily misses the disparaging glance Hermione is shooting Luna before she turns to look curiously at him, and Ginny's intense stare at her Ravenclaw friend, who was avoiding her look by becoming engrossed in her upside down magazine.

Ron, on whom such important things as the secret language of a woman's stare is completely lost, just gives his best friend a quizzical look and asks, "What were you two talking about?"

"Thestrals. They pull the carriages," Harry says.

"Oh great, another one," Ron mutters.

"Another what?" Harry asks.

"Another weird animal that no one else can see. She's got loads of them," Ron says.

"But, they are there," Harry says.

He looks at Harry like he'd just said invisible monster horses were pulling the carriages. Ironic, no? "Harry, there's nothing there," he says carefully.

Harry frowns. "They're invisible draconic horses. I looked them up in the Library."

Ron is so thrown by the possibility that "Loony" Luna could be right about something, that he decides to focus on the one part he could believe but not understand. "You spent your free time studying in the library?" he asks deadpan.

"Oh, stop it Ron. It's good that Harry took the initiative and didn't waste his time on something stupid," Hermione jumps to Harry's defense. Even if she had no idea what he was talking about, Harry said it was in the Library, so it was probably true. She'd double check of course; just in case. Flying horses, sure. Invisible horses? Why not. Unicorns? Amazing. But _invisible_ _draconic_ _horses_…

"How come you can see these trestles and we can't?" Ron asks, agitated by Hermione.

Harry glances at Luna, who just lifts her magazine a little higher to cover her face. "…later. So how's it to be a Prefect?"

* * *

From here on in, there will several parts taken directly from the book. This should thin out later on as my changes really start to affect the storyline, but for now, bear with me.

Read and review please!


	14. Chapter 14

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear Lo-Ryuus2~! Happy birthday to me~!

What? It is. And here is my gift to my readers to show my appreciation. Okay, so technically it was yesterday, but the sun hasn't come up yet. So it counts.

Now to address some concerns people had about the story thus far:

Harry's acceptance of Negi and changes I have yet to reveal are the reasons behind his greater assertiveness and heightened battle ability. And most importantly, his much curbed emo-ness. Suffice it to say, he got some therapy and it's done him a world of good. Full explanation pending. There were some comments about Harry using magic outside school. That will be explained in a few chapters. As for his quick uptake of mage spells, he has four years of magical training and is only learning the most basic spells. He won't properly learn even the magical archer or shield spells until the end of the year. About my tendency to forget about the fourth wall, I can only say that I do it for fun. The present tense, which I know better than all of you complaining about how hard it is to read how hard it is to actually _write_, is there to represent a feeling of life and _now._ I want this to be read like exactly what it is: a story that is constantly moving forward as you read it, not a retelling from someone else. It's alive baby!

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 13: Where I am forced to start recognizing that Harry spent most of this year as an annoying emo. OR The First Night of Term. Take your pick.

Negi is walking down the halls from his office in his best tweed suit and freshly pressed beige robe, staff in hand. Despite his misgivings about their station, he had to admit that the House Elves really were very good at their jobs. His clothes hadn't been this clean and fresh when they'd been new!

And it wasn't just his clothes that shined like new: the entire castle was resplendent with the House Elves' dedication. The walls, the floors, the windows: everything seemed to shine with fresh polish. The armor gleamed in the light and not a creek could be heard from door, picture, or statue…unless they wanted to make one, of course.

As Negi enters the Great Hall he is treated to a wondrous sight. All four house tables are in their proper places, the field of candles floating a half-dozen feet over their tops casting a warm glow upon the bronze plates and goblets spread across them, in turn reflecting the golden glow throughout the hall until every stone was bathed in golden light.

The head table also holds a surprising sight. It is equally decked out as its larger fellows, though differs in that it is almost fully occupied. Every member of the faculty, barring Professors Grubbly-Plank and McGonagall who were attending to the students, is seated together along the far edge of the table.

"If you leave your jaw hanging much longer flies will find their way in, Professor," Dumbledore calls softly, his voice carrying well in the silent expanse, effectively breaking Negi from his awestruck (some would call it adorable) study of the refreshed grandeur of the Great Hall.

Negi snaps his mouth closed and flushes. He only then notices that he has somehow crossed half of the hall in his wonder and hurries the rest of the way. He scratches the back of his neck and offers a wavy smile to the headmasters—good natured—twinkly-eyed grin. He quickly makes his way around the table to take his seat between Professor's Flitwick and Vector on Dumbledore's left.

"So, exited for the start of term, Negi?" Professor Vector asks. She isn't an old witch, but neither was she young. Her long straight dark-brown hair reaches down her back, with matching brown eyes, and contrasts well with her flattering crimson robes.

"Sigh. Is it that obvious?" he asks, only to receive benign chuckles. As he stares wistfully out across the dining hall, he thinks, _'A year ago I never would have thought I'd be sitting here. Then again, I never thought I'd do a lot of the things I've done since I graduated last year. Er, a month ago. Uh, last year. Um-dash it all! Time travel is so annoying.'_

"No need to worry Negi, you'll do fine," Filius interjects with a chuckle, unaware of his young colleagues inner monologue. "I have no doubt the students will welcome you warmly." '_Especially the young ladies_,' he thinks.

A dull clattering and low chattering is heard drifting up from the front doors, quickly rising in volume.

"Ah, here they come now."

* * *

The ride up to the castle was pleasant. Harry's friends filled him in on the dull as hell cleaning they spent the past two weeks doing. They joked about the joys of being prefects and who made the post, including Malfoy. When Hagrid was brought up, Harry told the others that McGonagall had confirmed he was still on holiday, but there was no telling where he was or when he'd be back. When his curiosity finally got the better of him, Harry asked Luna about her magazine. Luna enthusiastically talked up her father's publication over Hermione's muted grumblings about its uselessness. Harry took a look through the article about Sirius and had to fight not to break out into mad guffaws over it. Luna mistook his not-so-silent enthusiasm as approval and told him he could keep it. Eventually, the topic of the new professor came up, and he told everyone that Professor Springfield was very young and very talented. The rest was to be a surprise.

Once the carriages arrived at the castle they split up, Luna to her table, Ginny to join her year mates, and Nevil to chat with the rest of his dorm mates, leaving the three main characters to squeeze in with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Not long after, the hall quieted as Professor McGonagall led the troop of new first years in. As she had for Harry and most of those present years before, she placed a short three legged stool down and dropped a moth-eaten hat upon it. And then it perked up and started singing.

Harry had only heard the Sorting Hat sing in two of his past four years, and knew the feeling of awe written across the first years faces, and, he noted with amusement, Negi's. But now he joined many of his schoolmates in confusion as the Hat sang on about danger and unity. It had never done that before. Did it know something they didn't? Could it sense the coming storms of war?

The song ended, and the questions flew in hushed whispers across the tables as with a call of "Abercrombie, Euan!" McGonagall started the Sorting. Harry accompanied his housemates in their applause every time the hat called out "Gryffindor," putting off conversation until the food had been dished out.

A final yell of "Hufflepuff" placed "Zeller, Rose" and ended the sorting. Now it was time for Dumbledore's famous pre-dinner speech. "To our newcomers, welcome! To our old hands—welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!" Truly a brilliant speaker that man.

Dobby hadn't been kidding when he told Harry how much effort the elves were putting into tonight's dinner. The elves really outdid themselves. Harry hadn't eaten dishes this good since the schools arrived for the tournament last year!

Eventually the entrées were replaced by desserts and everyone slowed down or stopped eating. Only then did Dumbledore stand to give his ritualistic year-opening speech. "Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start of-term-notices. First years are to know that the forest on the grounds is out of bounds to students—and a few of our older students might need to be reminded." Harry, Hermione, and Ron shared smirks mirrored by the twins down the table. Where did you think they got most of their rare ingredients from?

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the 462nd time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in the corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.

"We have two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons," he pauses to allow the brief applause for the mostly well-liked substitute before continuing. "We are also delighted to introduce Professor Springfield, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Negi quickly became the focus of the school, braking off his conversation with Professors Flitwick and Vector to smile benignly to the school at large. Most of the girls in fifty feet of him found themselves blushing, and those farther out clamoring for a better look. Harry was soon chuckling like mad under his breath at the spectacle.

"Quidditch trials for second years up will be held this weekend. Please see your captains and Heads of House for times and details. Now…I believe that we should start this new year on a cheery note, so please join me in singing the school song. No need to worry about the tune, merely select your pitch and follow at your own pace." Like four years ago, a stream of gold shot from Dumbledore's wand and crafted the words of the song in the air.

Harry could feel a sense of nostalgia, joining Hermione in signing to a childish tune that once opened a popular kids show. That is, until the notes of a funeral dirge caught his ears. In a grim parody of the twin's humorous act from Harry's first year, a large group of Slytherins began singing to the oppressive beat of the dirge. Draco caught Harry's eye from the center of the pack, and his smirk told Harry _exactly_ who the song was for.

Harry didn't know what to think. In the tumult of aggravated thoughts that Malfoy brought out with his action, a plan so wrong it could only be, well, wrong, reared its ugly head in his, er, head.

Harry sends a wicked grin back at Malfoy that stole the smirk from his mouth. Harry walks down the table as more and more people finish the song, or stop to stare at the Slytherins, until he reaches the bellowing twins trying to overpower the Slytherin song with their own drunken Irish ditty. Harry pulls them into a huddle and a few seconds later the three climb onto the table with matching grins to sing the song to a wedding march. As they make a slow march up the table the twins transfigure a treacle tart and Ron's pudding into bouquets for effect and each snag one of Harry's arms and flutter their eyelashes. They are soon joined in song by the Creevy brothers, Lee Jordan, Neville, and the Gryffindor team chasers. Soon the Slytherins' depressing tune is drowned out in the laughter and song accompanying the bridal party.

The trio finish their performance at the end of the table with a bow to Dumbledore, the twins sending saucy winks to the female teachers over Harry's head. The trio jump off the table and return to their seats under Dumbledore's loud applause. "Splendid, splendid! Though I will have to ask for a refrain from dinner theater in the future gentlemen. Now! The hour is late, and I fear you will all have busy mornings ahead. So, to bed with you all! Good night!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione start on their way out of the Great Hall, sidestepping the havoc caused by the twins tossing their bouquets over their shoulders into the amassing crowds at the entrance.

"Honestly Harry, you shouldn't have done something like that just to get a shot at the Slytherins," Hermione tries to admonish her still-smiling friend. She doesn't try very hard.

Ron, as usual, has a different opinion. "Oh come off it Hermione! That was brilliant! And did you see Malfoy? He looked like he ate a lemon!"

Hermione just sighs a quiet "Boys," while shaking her head. Then she remembers her new position. "OH! Ron, we're Prefects! We have to show the first years to the tower!"

"What? Oh, right! Uh…hey- you lot! Midgets!" He shouts into the crowd.

"_Ron_! You can't call them that!"

"Well, they are, they're titchy…"

"Ugh," she facepalms. She turns into the crowd and crows authoritatively, "First years! Gryffindors! This way, please!"

Ron shrugs and turns to Harry. "See you at the tower mate?"

"Yeah. Go to it then before she comes after you," Harry chuckles as he gives Ron a nudge to follow Hermione.

Harry sent the doe-eyed kids –Ron was right, they were midgets. He wasn't that tiny back then was he?- a grin as they approached Hermione. They replied with fearful stares and defensive flinches. Harry lost his grin and made haste for the doors.

He hadn't noticed, he supposed, what with rejoining his friends and outmaneuvering the Slytherins, but people had been staring at him, and not just the firsties who had never seen him, but _everyone_. They were all whispering, pointing, and looking away nervously when he glanced at them. Some were even taking strides to flinch out of his path as he walked. He recognized the emotions in their eyes: fear from the ones who didn't know him, and uncertainty from the ones that did.

He was so stupid; he should have realized it sooner. The Prophet had spent all summer painting him and Dumbledore as loons, and most of the students and their families subscribed to the paper. And most of them would never question a single word of it.

Harry broke from the throngs in the Entrance Hall and used his suitably grand knowledge of Hogwarts to make his way quickly up to the Gryffindor tower entrance on the seventh floor.

Harry reaches the tower easily and without running into anyone, but…

"Password," the Fat Lady asks him primly as she always has.

The answer rolls off his tongue easily. "Phoenix."

"Wrong password."

"What? When did it change?" He shouts indignantly.

"The new password is set on the first day of term: today. You should have asked one of the Prefects or Professors before rushing up here."

Harry just stands there fuming. He did NOT want to stand around getting stared at by people who thought he was crazy, which is exactly what would happen if he had to wait for someone to come and help him inside. As he is standing there trying to come up with an answer without succumbing to his mood, Neville runs up literally skipping in joy.

"Harry! Hey! You'll never believe it! I won't have any trouble remembering the password this year!" he says excitedly, flourishing a rather ugly plant. He turns to the Fat Lady and says clearly, "_Mimblus Mimbletona,_" causing her to swing open.

After thanking his shy friend, they step through the portal. There aren't many people in the common room, and those sticking around were warming their hands by the fire. Harry spots the twins over by the notice board out of the corner of his eye, and waves to them as he and Neville make a bee-line for the boy's dorms. As they make their way up the staircase to the fifth year boys' room, he asks Neville about the password.

"Mimblus Mimbletona?"

"This," he says, displaying his odd cactus-like plant for Harry's inspection. "Mimblus Mimbletona is a rare plant that produces stinksap as a natural defense. My Uncle Albi got it for me for my birthday."

Harry laughs. "Ha ha! That's great Nev! So you won't be stuck out in the corridor relying on everyone else to get in this year? At least until they change the password anyway." Seeing the sulking shock brought on by his statement, Harry quickly continues, "Who knows, maybe the next one'll be a plant as well? You could always ask Professor McGonagall to do it; say it's to keep people on their toes with their studies or something."

Neville beams at him in relief. "Thanks Harry. I'll give it a try."

By now they've reached their room. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, two of their roommates, are already there decorating their respective nooks. They stop talking when Harry and Neville walk in, but Harry dismisses it.

"Hi Dean, Seamus. Have a good holiday?" Harry says as he opens his trunk and starts changing out of his robes.

"Hey Harry," Dean says pulling on his West Ham pajamas. "It was okay. Better than yours and Seamus's anyway."

"A dementor attack ruins anyone's anything. But what was so bad about yours Seamus?"

Seamus doesn't say anything for a while as he makes sure his Kenmare Kestral's Quidditch poster is perfectly straight. With his back still to his dorm mates, he says, "Me Mam didn't want me to come back."

"What?" Harry says, pausing with his own pajamas. Surely he heard that wrong.

Dean keeps his back to Harry as he pulls out his own pajamas from his trunk. "She didn't want me to come back to Hogwarts."

"But-why?" Harry had met Seamus's mother at the World Cup last summer. She was a nice witch and took to him well enough. He really couldn't see why she wouldn't want Seamus to come to school.

Seamus answers once he is done with his pajamas. "Well I suppose…because of you," He says in a measured voice.

"What d'you mean," Harry asks dumbfounded. He could feel his heart racing and the world closing in around him. Whatever Seamus said next, he just knew it wouldn't be good.

Seamus was still avoiding Harry's eyes. "Well, she…er…well, it's not just you, its Dumbledore too…"

Now Harry understood. "The Prophet. The Bloody Daily Prophet. She believes all of that shit they've been printing? That I'm a liar and Dumbldore's an old fool?"

Seamus finally meets Harry's eyes. "Yeah, something like that." To his credit, Dean didn't flinch at the amalgamation of disgust, disappointment, and anger burning in Harry's eyes. Then again, the room was kinda dark.

Harry doesn't say anything as he finishes getting changed, throws down his wand on his bedside table, and joins it with his glasses as he jumps into bed and makes to close his bed hangings.

Before he could do so, Seamus asks, nervous and eager at the same time, "Look, what _did_ happen that night when…you know, when …with Cedric Diggory and all?"

The absence of background noise let Harry know that Dean and Neville were definitely paying attention now. He rolls over in his bed, forgetting his curtains, and goes quiet, his emotions at war with themselves. Right as they're about to start asking him if he's alright, he starts speaking in a hushed monotone.

"Cedrid died. Voldemort came back. We dueled. I ran. You can fill in the blanks for yourselves. G'night." He rolls back over, grabs up his wand, and flicks his curtains closed.

In the stunned silence of the dorm room, Ron's voice easily pierces their attention with its unnatural authority. "OK, cut the chatter. It's been a long day and we've got another one coming. Get to bed." Ron had come in halfway through and heard everything. The other three boys are so shocked that they follow the instructions wordlessly. Harry opening up and Ron being authoritative? In the same night? It was just too weird. They were half wondering if they had already gone to sleep.

* * *

OMAKE

Seating Arrangements.

We open on the Hogwarts staff room, currently occupied by only the chattering witches on staff. Professor McGonagall steps up in front of her fellows and calls them to order. "Ok, ladies, we all know why we're here, so let's settle down."

They all quickly compose themselves.

"Now, as we all know, with the start of term we must return to our traditional arrangements at the head table, which means that only one—possibly two—of us may be seated next to Negi Springfield at any given time."

Now depressed/indignant/wistful murmuring starts up.

"And to that affect," she speaks over them all, as easily calling order as she does in her own classroom, "we now all turn to The Wheel of Destiny."

With a grand gesture that could easily be misconstrued as a simple wave of the hand, she directs her audience to turn to the near wall where a large roulette wheel is set up, with each of its ten slots allocated to one of the women present.

"Now, who would like to try their luck tonight?"

"I'll give it a go," says Madame Hooch. "I'm feeling lucky tonight." She stands and approaches the wheel confidently. She grabs her own name high on the wheel and gives it a sharp clockwise turn. The wheel spins quickly for half a minute before slowing down. It does waver over her slot for several seconds, but eventually falls into Professor Vector's spot.

The young-ish brunette reacts with an exuberant "Yes!"

Minerva again calls order and wraps up the meeting.

There's more grumbling as they break to finish preparing for the return of the students later that night.

* * *

I just noticed, but I'm keeping pace with the book. It wasn't planned, but for right now, I think I'll go with it.

And done. Review! You do know there is a direct correlation between review quantity, review quality, and update speed, don't you?


	15. Chapter 15

Gaahaa! I wanna get done with this year so I can move on to the next! More fights! More fun! More girls! Less angst! Less character development that doesn't involve a kiss and a panty shot! More crack potential! And most importantly, More Explosions!

Now that that's out of my system…

One of my New Years resolutions was monthly updates, and this would be the one for last month. I've lengthened it to make up for it, and I'm also posting a Naruto songfic that distracted me earlier last month. I'm not sure what I'll update after this…

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 14: The First Day of the Rest of the Year

Harry was gone to morning training at the lake before anyone else woke up.

Like the day before, Negi decided to start the morning off with a bombshell.

"You are an idiot," he says, proudly and with a grand smile on his face.

Harry just stares at him in shock for a couple of minutes, until Negi starts fidgeting. Then he starts shouting. "Excuse me? What the Hell was that for?"

"Ack! Wait, wait! Let me explain! It's a good thing! Sort of. It depends on how you take it really," Negi babbles out in a rush. He coughs embarrassedly. "Let me explain. Fighters can be simply grouped into two categories: idiots and thinkers. I'm a thinker, I think through every move, plan out numerous strategies, and weigh every possibility. An idiot is someone who doesn't need to think about jumping into the fray; they just do it. They fight on instinct, reflex, and guts. A lot of the most powerful people I know fit that group."

"So, by 'idiot,' you mean that I'm a hothead?" Harry deadpans.

"Uh…yes?" Negi grins nervously.

Harry sighs. "Thank God Hermione isn't hearing this. She'd never let me live down that she was right," he mutters. "OK, whatever. What's me being impulsive have to do with this?"

Negi jumps on the chance to move past his inelegantopening. "Determining whether you were an idiot or a thinker was the first step to planning how and what I teach you during training. If you were a thinker, we'd spend a lot of time going over martial arts forms and building a ground-work of skills for you to build on. It's much easier, in some ways, to teach an idiot. Idiots learn by doing, and soldier through anything they can't figure out like that."

"Okay, I can get behind that. So how do we start?"

"We're going to have to build up your strength, speed, and stamina quickly. You're not built for power, so we'll need to increase your agility and flexibility as well. So first: stretching and some warm up exercises. Then we go straight into sparring. I'll correct your stance and advise you as we go. It's not how I'd like to do it, but if Voldemort is as imminent a threat as you say, then we'll have to rely on this fast-and-dirty training method."

The next hour was spent with warming up, sparring, and cooling down, and was followed by another hour spent working on Harry's magical control. At the end of their session they decided that two hours past dawn was as long as they could afford to practice without losing too much time getting ready for the school day. Since Negi's office was closer to the Great Hall, they decided they'd clean up there after their morning practices before getting ready to face the day.

* * *

Harry ran into his friends on the way to breakfast. Well, _they _almost ran into _him_.

"Good morning," he casually greets Ron and Hermione, his hair still wet from his quick shower.

They are not so casual. **"Good morning? Good morning? Where've you been!"** They simultaneously shout, making Harry cringe at the unexpected volume.

"You were gone before anyone woke up, you weren't anywhere in the tower, and the Fat Lady didn't see you leave!" Ron yells frantically**,** waving his arms wildly for effect.

"We were so worried Harry! What happened?" Her anger bleeding off after that first shout, Hermione chooses the frantically-worried-young-girl approach, clasping her hands and scanning Harry with moist eyes designed to induce guilt. They work.

Harry waves his hands in surrender at his friends. He didn't think they'd react this badly to his absence. "Guys I'm fine! I've been doing morning training with Professor Springfield. I flew out on my Firebolt around dawn."

"Training? What kind of training?" Hermione asks suspiciously. Harry may trust this new professor, but she was wary. She would give Professor Springfield the benefit of the doubt, but she learned her lesson about blindly trusting teachers, especially DADA's, after Lockhart. She would be keeping a close eye on Professor Springfield. His cute smile wouldn't sway her! (heh heh hee~)

"Er, mostly exercises, and some sparring. He's-"

"Hey Harry," A feminine alto calls behind him.

Harry stops at the voice and his heart skips a beat. He turns and finds Cho Chang, Ravenclaw Seeker, and the prettiest girl in the school. In his eyes anyway; though not too many guys, or an assortment of girls, would argue the matter with him.

"Hey, Cho. How was your summer?" he asks. _"Smooth Harry. That's the best you could come up with?"_ he berates himself. Well, at least he didn't stutter.

"It was fine, what with, you know..." She trails off sadly.

The morose silence is broken by Ron in his standard, brutally stupid way. He points to a badge on Cho's chest and says, "That's a Tornado badge. Have you always supported them, or just started now that they're winning some?"

Cho glares mildly at Ron. "I've always supported them." The mood broken, she turns her glare from him to Harry and softens it into a smile. "See you Harry."

"See you," he returns weakly. He watches her walk away to join some of her housemates entering the Great hall.

"Why'd you have to go and do that? Honestly Ronald," Hermione gripes at Ron.

"What? Most of the people wearing those only just started when they won their matches this summer!"

Harry lets his friends bickering fade into background noise. Cho came to talk to him. Nothing else around him matters compared to that. Not his friends slipping into one of their ritualistic squabbles as they enter the Great Hall. Not the students rushing to stay clear of him. Not the bruised rib he got sparring Negi earlier acting up as he takes his seat between his glowering friends. Nothing could spoil his mood. Nothing except the twins nearly spilling the beans that he was secretly funding their joke shop. Fortunately, Harry manages to snap out of his revelry and catch George's attention in time to keep him from revealing that particular detail. He did _not_ want Molly or even Hermione finding out that he was their secret benefactor.

The day didn't get any easier when Professor McGonagall gave him his class schedule. He couldn't help but agree with Ron: it was the worst Monday schedule he'd ever seen. He barely held on to consciousness through History of Magic; Mr. Binns could make even the most enticing story of adventure and heroism deathly boring. Harry would readily admit that if anyone but Binns were to teach the history of giant wars, he would probably find the subject very interesting.

Double Potions with the Slytherin's was horrible, as usual. Snape even VANISHED his potion, even though his Draught of Peace was better than most. The dark grey smoke from his potion clearly couldn't stack up to Hermione's shimmering silver vapor, but it was better than the cement like thickness of Neville's or the green sparks and rotten egg stink from Ron's!

Harry was all too glad when lunch rolled around. He tried relaxing as best he could, but he couldn't stomach the student's stares and his friends arguing until the end and rushed to Divination early. It was yet another less than stellar day in his second-least-favorite class. Dream interpretation was a sore subject with Harry; his dreams were a private, and dangerous, matter after all.

When it was finally time for Defense, though, Harry was in brighter spirits. Not that he'd tell anyone why: he'd spent the entire day not telling anyone anything useful when they asked him about Negi.

Harry happily leads his friends to front row seats in the joint class upon entering the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Negi is already there, seated behind his desk poring over a stack of parchment. When the bell finally rings he stands to begin class.

"Hello everyone. My name is Negi Springfield, and I will be teaching you Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. I hope it is an enjoyable experience for us all," Negi says with his most pleasant smile, causing many girls to flush noticeably and several to swoon. "Now, as I'm not an alumnus of this school I don't quite know how fast the rumor mill works, though I doubt I won't be very well known by the end of the week." The class laughs with an uncommon amount of giggling for a bunch of 15 year olds. "As it is, I've decided to answer any questions you may have now. Afterwards we'll begin today's lesson."

Hands fly up all over the room and the questions start with, "How old are you?"

Negi doesn't even flinch at the abrupt personal question. His earlier classes had shown similar…enthusiasm. "I'm 16, Mr…?"

"Thomas. Dean Thomas, Sir. Where did you go to school if you got out at only 16?"

"I attended the Merdiana Magic Academy in Wales."

A new wave of curiosity pervades the classroom. "Wales? I didn't know there was a magic school in Wales?" Dean says.

"Most witches and wizards wouldn't know of it. It's a mage school."

This time Neville breaks the surprised silence. "You're a mage? Wow, I've never met one."

Negi obligingly turns to the round-faced boy. "Yes, I am a mage, Mr…?"

Neville blushes. At his forwardness or for another reason is a question he dare not ask himself. "L-Longbottom, Sir. Neville Longbottom." He hesitates a moment before asking, "If you're a mage, why are you teaching here at Hogwarts?"

"Merdiana has an internship program for its graduates. The positions are chosen by the Magus –the Headmaster– of the school to best suit the individuals and provide them opportunities for growth. The placements are very widespread: a good friend of mine became a fortune teller in London, and I heard someone say that they were being sent to teach English in Japan."

Ernie raises his hand from the back of the room. Negi gives him an inviting look urging him to continue. "Ernie Macmillan, Sir. How can a mage teach wizards? Don't we use different magic?"

"An excellent question," Negi says. "Though the ways in which we manipulate magical forces are different, the strategies for conquering dark beasts and dark wizards are the same regardless."

"But how can you teach us spells if we use different magic?"

Negi answers by drawing his star wand. He gives it a sharp flick at a suit of armor standing in the corner of the classroom with a firm incanting of "Expelliarmus." The suits sword is sent flying while it collapses against the wall. The flying sword comes to rest comfortably in Negi's unoccupied hand, much to the class's amazement. "I'll manage. Now, if there are no more questions?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Paravatti blurts out. The force of all the girls' stares settling on him causes him to sweatdrop.

Negi sighs, thinking, _'Every time.'_ Out loud he says, "Not at the moment, no. Though I'm not exactly on the market either." The girls all visibly deflate in disappointment. "Now, please put away your wands and books. Today's lesson is a written exam-" cue class-wide moaning "-I know, I know. But this particular exam is worth no points, and will not affect your final grade. Technically."

With "Huh?" being the general response, he decides to elaborate.

"This is the standardized version of the Defense O.W.L.'s. I'm giving it to you as a review. I'll use it to judge the individual level of your knowledge and understanding of the course so I know what areas to stress over the year, as a class and individually." He explains as he passes them down the rows. Once all the papers are passed out he returns to the front of the room. "You may now begin. Feel free to skip over questions you don't know or can't understand; remember that the point of this is only to give me an understanding of your course competency and give you a taste of what you'll be going through next spring."

The students spend the rest of the period working silently on the test as Negi continues studying the stacks of parchment on his desk. Towards the end of class, Hermione raises her hand. Everyone, being either done or anxiously awaiting the bell so they can leave, quickly notices, even Negi. "Yes, Miss…?"

"Hermione Granger, Professor. I had a question about the exam…" She trails off as she finally makes eye contact with him and the full force of his smile hits her. She thought she could fight off his raw animal magnetism with intellect and self control. She was wrong.

"Yes? What is it?" Negi asks with a patient smile. Not all of his old students were as outgoing as Class 3-A, so he had a lot of practice waiting for answers from nervous young women. Of course, despite his apparent age, he still couldn't tell 'nervous' from 'aroused.'

Hermione's blush is atrocious and she can barely think straight. _'If he keeps smiling at me like that I'll melt! I want him to- No! Control yourself girl! Focus! Ignore your hormones and ask him the question!'_ Taking a breath to compose herself, she stumbles over her tongue as she asks, "Wh-wha…*gulp* What year is the test from?"

Everyone blinks at the odd question. Negi's smile only deepens. "Mr. Potter did not exaggerate your intelligence, I see," he says, sending the bushy brunettes blush from atrocious to sun-burnt. "This exam is from several years ago, and is slightly out of date."

That gets everyone's attention. "So this entire thing is useless!" An as-yet nameless Hufflepuff shouts.

"No. It would be a serious offense to let any of you see this year's exam early. Though outdated, the core concepts on this test are still valid and the subject matter is the same. As I said earlier, this exam was strictly to help me determine your understandings of the material. For that purpose, it is perfectly adequate-" He is interrupted by the ringing bell. "Ah, it appears we are out of time for today. Please leave your papers on your desks; I'll collect them after you have gone." After the students collect their bags and begin leaving the classroom, he says, "And Miss Granger? Twenty points to Gryffindor for perceptiveness."

Poor Hermione; she had just gotten her blush down to a cherry red flush, and one smiling comment from Negi shot it up to Atomic. She barely managed to stumble out of the classroom under her own power before Paravatti and Lavender apprehended her for giggly girl talk with the other Griffindor girls lucky enough to have Defense that day all throughout dinner.

* * *

Hermione had regained most of her normal color by her return to the common room after dinner, and she was quick to go join Harry and Ron around the fireplace. Harry was in the middle of telling Ron something that had him shaking with suppressed emotion.

"-and then he jumps up and starts licking her face!" Harry says with barely contained laughter.

"No-!" Ron gasps out, grabbing his sides to keep from breaking out in uncontrollable laughter.

"Yes! And then Professor Sinistra started laughing, so he jumped her and did the same thing!" The boys finally break down laughing, even as Hermione takes the seat opposite Ron's on the loveseat.

"What are you two going on about?" She asks them when their laughter starts quieting down.

Harry says between chuckles, "I –haha– I was telling Ron about something Si-Snuffles did when he visited last week."

"What did he do?" She asks inquisitively.

"OK, so, as you know, Professor Springfield is new to the whole teaching thing. As you also know, I directed him to Remus for advice. And when Remus came to meet him, he brought Snuffles along. And while the two were talking about schedules and rosters, I took Snuffles for a walk around the grounds. He wrestled Fang, scared some birds, dogged the Willow...you know, the usual. Then on the way back in for lunch, we ran into Professors Vector and Sinistra. Anyway, we exchanged hellos and they said it was nice of me to walk Fang while Hagrid was out. I told them that he was actually Professor Lupin's dog Snuffles, and I was watching him while he was with Professor Springfield." Ron starts chuckling. "And then Snuffles saunters up to Professor Vector and puts on his 'stupid tramp' act, lolling his tongue playfully and all but begging for a scratch. Well, she obliged him and gave him a few strokes, and then he, heh heh, he jumps up, sets his paws on her shoulder, and starts slobbering all over her face!"

"He didn't!" Hermione giggles into her hand.

"Oh he most certainly did! And then, when Professor Sinistra started laughing about it, he switched over to her!" Hermione falls back in her seat in a giggling fit as Ron bursts into guffaws. Harry manages to continue through his own laughter. "And then, haha! And then the Professor pulled out her wand to clean up and –hahaha!– he stole her wand! She chased him across the grounds for five minutes until Professor Vector got enough control of herself to summon the wand from him! But it was covered in dog slobber when she grabbed it! Oh you should have seen the look on her face! It was absolutely priceless!" The guffaws of the three friends drew a lot of attention from the rest of the room, not that they could notice with how hard they were laughing.

Once they had caught their breath, the three pulled out their small mountain of homework to work on. Harry was sure the stack was bigger than the one they were given for summer break the year before. As they worked, they talked about their day. It was in the same vein as usual: "Binns is boring," "Snape is evil," "Trelawney's a hack," etc. But when they got to Negi…

"What's with that Professor Springfield giving us a test on the first day?" Ron asks.

"Like he said, it was an evaluation. He's really trying to prepare us for the O.W.L.'s in spring, Ron," Harry replies, lifting his throbbing head from his essay on giant wars. He notices Hermione curling inwards to try and hide her blush and chuckles inwardly. _'She's cute when she blushes.' _He shakes his head and blinks away the thought.

All of this passes right by Ron. He does see the twins and Lee Jordan ushering some first years away, but doesn't mention it. He can't bust his own brothers after all. He also doesn't want to be on the receiving end of their retribution for busting them.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Hermione starts rummaging around in her book duffel, muttering as she shifts text books, reference books, note books, and a little orange book around until with a triumphant grunt she pulls out…wool doilies?

"Hermione…what in the name of Merlin are those?" Ron asks.

"They're hats for the house elves of course. I've been learning to make them over break," She says brightly as she places them on an end table near the fire and covers them with some rumpled parchment and a broken quill.

"That's not on," Ron says angrily. "You're trying to trick them into picking up the hats. You're setting them free when they might not want to be free."

"Of course they want to be free!" She says, turning pink at his choice of words. "Don't you dare touch those hats Ron!" Turning on her heel, she leaves. Rom waits until she has disappeared into the girl's dormitory before getting up and cleaning the rubbish off the 'hats'.

"They should at least see what they're picking up," He says and returns to staring at his moonstone essay for Snape. After a minute of blank staring, he sighs and rolls it up. "There's no point in trying to finish this now. I can't do it without Hermione, I haven't got a clue what you're supposed to do with moonstones, have you?"

Harry sighs and shakes his head no. He was starting to get a headache. "I'm going to keep working on Binns essay. I've gotta get at least that much out of the way before McGonagall gives us more tomorrow."

Ron groans at the thought. "I'm going to bed." He stuffs his things back into his bag and heads off to the dormitories. Harry watches him walk off until he meets Seamus, then turns back to his work, studiously ignoring the other boy.

* * *

The Ministry of Magic, London

In the office of Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge there is a knock at the door.

Not looking up from his paperwork, Fudge calls, "Enter."

The door opens with a faint squeak, and Umbridge shuffles in. "Good evening Minister," She says adoringly.

A shiver runs down the spines of the two men in the room. They dismiss it as a glitch in the climate control spells. "Ah Delores! Good evening. Peabody, you can go." Fudge smiles, then shoes out his aid.

"Yes sir. And it's Percy Sir." Percy Weasley says as he makes his way out, only pausing to give a large-nod, more like a short-bow, to Umbridge. "Madame Undersecretary."

Once the door is closed behind Percy, Umbridge takes the offered seat in front of Fudge's desk. "Your new assistant seems to be doing well."

"He is a dedicated, hardworking, and bright boy," He sighs. "But not very sharp I'm afraid."

"And his…other role?" She presses discreetly.

He shrugs. "He separated from his family right after I gave him the job. They saw right through it."

"What a shame. Family is so very important." She says with a suggestive smile.

For all his idiocy, Cornelius is still smart enough to know to avoid that line of conversation. Especially with his present company. He quickly changes the subject. "That reminds me; I finally finished reviewing the proposal. Lucius said the Board of Governors will surely support it, so all that's left is to put it through a vote."

"Really?" She says with just too much glee. Her eyes have the same glint as an alligator looking at a chicken on a wire.

"Yes. Though I should hate to lose you, your new post should be ready by the start of next week."

Okay, forget alligator. That was the smile of a dragon. A fat pink dragon. Or a giant pink toad that just spotted the world's largest fly. Take your pick; they're both nightmare fuel.

* * *

To clarify, I'm assuming that the teacher's offices are connected to their quarters.

For my purposes, the Gryffindors are sharing Defense with the Hufflepuffs. I once promised someone an SI for that house, but I lost the message where we talked about it. If you can remember who you are, please contact me so we can work it out.

And now, OMAKE!

What makes a prat?

Percy Weasley carefully hides his relief as he leaves the Minister's office to pack up for the evening. He loves his job, but some of the people he has to work with just turn his stomach. The Madam Undersecretary, for instance, has to be the single most xenophobic person Percy has ever met. Some of the legislation she tries pushing through the Wizengamot borders on the criminal!

Leaving the ministry through the public entrance, slipping off his robes in the elevator to reveal the simple black slacks and white button-up shirt below, shrinking his robe to the size of a napkin, Percy walks three blocks to a small coffee house and orders a cappuccino and a raspberry muffin. Taking his order, he sits at a table and pulls out the London Times to read as he snacks.

Percy comes to this café every day after work to unwind. Or so he says.

You see, not long after graduation, Percy was approached with a job offer from the Ministry. But not the magical one.

"Good evening, 003," The aged woman at the table next to his greets, her back facing his.

"Good evening, Miss Moneypenny," He responds blandly. "Where's Caswell?"

When Military Intelligence asks you to become their new inside man, do you really have a choice in the matter?

"His wife went into labor. He called in a favor."

"That's good for him. Boy or girl?"

"Girl, 7 pounds. She has her mother's eyes."

"Send him my regards. I'll have to pick up a present."

"How was work?"

"The Toad and Candyboy are still working on their plot to destabilize the school. It's all in my report."

"You're a tribute to Crown and Country."

"Long live the Queen."

"How's your family?"

He freezes. He says with forced calm, "We're still not speaking."

"It's a shame how things turned out." She says quietly.

"I wouldn't be as effective working both sides. It was a necessary sacrifice."

"…"

Percy quickly finishes his drink. He folds a scroll of parchment into his paper and leaves it on the table. Percy leaves at a brisk clip to find a safe place to disapparate to his apartment from. As he walks, he wonders if he should send Ron a letter about the new Educational Decree…

* * *

Kukukuku~

Reviews are like a box of chocolate: You never know what you're gonna get, and there's never enough in the box :D


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